Graphic Design

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 dec 2018

When design trends get too hyped they lose relevance. Co.Design editor Susanne Labarre discussed the future of design with the judges of the 2018 Innovation by Design awards. Following are 3 over-hyped design trends - (1) ALGORITHMS AREN'T EVERYTHING: Jason Chua, the executive director of advanced topics at United Technologies, says, 'I think there's this impatience to say we have an algorithm for something, and that'll solve all our problems. Machine learning is not a panacea, and if you don't apply human-centered principles, you may see some of these things run amok. I think it's very valuable...but it needs to be applied in very careful ways.' (2) VIRTUAL REALITY HAS NOTHING ON THE PHYSICAL WORLD: Edel Rodriguez, illustrator and graphic designer, says, 'I don't like VR...I don't care how many times people say this is great new technology. It's just not how I want to experience the world and not how I want my kids to experience the world. There's a lot of information a kid can get through flipping a page or touching things.' (3) DATA IS PRODUCING DESIGN THAT ALL LOOKS THE SAME: Marcelo Eduardo, founding partner at Work & Co, says, 'There's an oversimplification - a lot of things look the same...People are designing in such a strict way using data all the time and they're losing the creative potential...that's when you're disruptive. Data-driven design...stagnates really fast. Someone takes over by doing something different that you wouldn't do if you were analyzing the data. Read on...

Fast Company: The 3 most over-hyped design trends of today
Author: Katharine Schwab

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 jun 2018

Logos are a brief visual representation of what the brand is all about. They help brands connect with customers and a memorable logo make it easier to do so. According to Siegel+Gale's 2015 study, 'Logos Now', memorable logos are 13% more likely to get consumer attention and 7% more likely to make them want to learn more about the brand. Ross Kimbarovsky, founder of Crowdspring, runs one of the world's leading marketplaces for crowdsourced logo designs, web design, graphic design, product design, and company naming services. Following are five things he recommends all organizations to do before hiring someone to design (or redesign) their logo for optimal results - (1) Your brand has to come before your logo: 'Your logo must derive meaning from your brand, not the other way around. Before a logo can communicate anything about your brand, you will need to better understand your brand. What values, practices, benefits, products or services set your company apart and make it unique?' (2) Assess what styles you like and don't like: 'New design trends and fads in logo design appear every year and not all designers can effectively incorporate popular trends and avoid the fads...Spend some time looking at various styles and build up a list of what you like and don't like.' (3) Decide what you are willing to pay: 'Pre-made logos is a terrible idea that will actually harm your business in the long run...it's not possible for a client to get a great logo for less than several hundred dollars. There's simply not enough incentive for a designer to spend time creating a custom design unless they get a reasonable fee for their work.' (4) Write a stronger 'project brief': 'The project brief can make or break a project...Most designers have limited time to do their work, so they will be picky when choosing which clients to work with...Help designers understand how you see your company or your products...Define the problems and define your goals: designers are problem solvers.' (5) Decide who will make the final branding decision: 'One person should own this process and be able to make the final decision...Pick a group of 2 or 3 people whose opinions you trust, whether in-house or not. In fact, people outside your company can often be better at this than insiders.' Read on...

Forbes: 5 Things You Absolutely Must To Do Before You Design Your Logo
Author: Kate L. Harrison

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 feb 2018

As with most technology and design trends, there is always something new happening in web design intended to capture the imagination of the audience. Experts in the field suggest the following trends that will dominate 2018 - (1) Paul Jarvis (Designer; Writer; pjrvs.com): Bright and bold minimalism and engaging photographic content. (2) Jane Portman (UI/UX Consultant; Book Author; Founder of Tiny Reminder; Co-founder of Userlist.io): Polished web applications. High-end aesthetics need to get more affordable for SaaS founders globally. As SaaS craftsmanship gets more refined, another wave of frameworks and ready-made UI solutions are expected. (3) Josh Haynam (Co-founder of Interact Quiz Builder): Interactive content. Customers expect more personalized and entertaining experience when they interact with brands, that can inturn be delivered by content like polls, quizzes, and games. (4) Vytautas Alech (UX Designer; Product Developer): Asymmetry and brutalism inspired free-form. (5) Alexey Galyzin (Product and Lead Designer at Crello): Illustrations and animations. Illustrations set a tone for a brand and add playfulness to their content. While, animations allow one to translate more information in an efficient way, driving attention and helping to tell a story in a few seconds. (6) Paula Borowska (Freelance Designer): Consistency and focus on understanding the end users. More user research and interviews to understande target audience. More consistency of the message across all channels. The tone, the company message, the language used, the visuals etc need to stay the same. It increases customer loyalty. (7) Sunil Joshi (Co-founder and Lead Designer at WrapPixel): More video, fluid shapes, use of gradients, animated CSS and typography. Videos are becoming part of a brands presentation and communication. Videos can deliver a great deal of information quickly and visually. Read on...

Forbes: Top Web Design Trends To Watch In 2018
Author: Tomas Laurinavicius

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 jul 2017

Technology is taking away traditional jobs from many industries. Even the workers in technology intensive graphic design sector face challenges from online artifical intelligence (AI) platforms that provide graphic design services. Canada-based Logojoy is one such platform providing personalized graphic services for small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs. It's AI platform is intuitive and mimics the process of working with human graphic designer. Dawson Whitfield, founder of Logojoy, says, 'The magic of Logojoy is the groundbreaking algorithm, user-friendly interface, and premium design ingredients. Logojoy has close to 1000 design rules built into its algorithm.' According to EY's recent 'Millennial Economy Report', 72% of new businesses do not have the funding for graphic design services. Mr. Whitfield adds, 'As a graphic designer, many of my clients were looking for budget solutions for their businesses, so this is when I realized I could help a lot of people in the start-up and SMB spaces with this software.' Read on...

ITBusiness.ca: The next job being eaten by AI: Graphic Design
Author: Mandy Kovacs

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 02 dec 2016

The rising tide of mobile devices brought with it the deluge of apps. As of June 2016, there were an overwhelming 4.2 million apps available on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. For an app to stand out among such a crowded app-place is not an easy task. Dima Rakovitsky, Founder and CEO of ROKO Labs, shares the following best practices for an aspiring app inventor - (1) Know Your Audience: Diligently figure out who will use the app and what problem will it solve; Focus on customer aesthetics based on the platform (iOS or Android) they use and design accordingly. (2) Validate Before You Build: Research the competitive market; Do customer surveys; Draw user flows; Professionally design the app and make a clickable prototype; Share it with potential users and seek suggestions and feedback. (3) Marketing And User Acquisition Plans: Make sure app has viral components; Create a marketing strategy supported with strong tactics; Have a marketing and advertising budget. (4) Make a Positive First Impression: It is key to acquiring and retaining users; Have a well-designed and memobrable app icon with short engaging description; To reduce churn rates, make sure your app is fast, intuitive and allows anonymous usage. (5) Easier is Always Better: Keep your app simple and accessible to everyone; Have understanding of UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience). (6) Consistency Is Key: The app should look and feel cohesive; Have unified color scheme and consistent typography; Make sure your app takes advantage of the unique features and norms of each mobile platform, but still coordinates with your website. Read on...

Alley Watch: 6 Tips for Aspiring App Inventors
Author: Dima Rakovitsky

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 oct 2016

45% of increase in jobs has been recorded in the creative economy since 1997 and it made upto 2.6 million jobs in total. Web design demands creativity, attention to detail, and practice. To observe and understand the work of successful designers and learn from it can help budding designers to master the art of web design. Here are some ways to enhance web design skills - (1) Avoid slideshows and carousels: They provide more information than what visitors can absorb; Offer a concise value proposition, particularly on homepage; Provide meaningful and relevant content. (2) Simplify the navigation through your design: Complex website with too many options can be counterproductive; Uncrowd your sidebar and header; Minimize dropdown menus; Be mobile-friendly. (3) Use a sketchbook: Assists during brainstorming and helps to organize design process better. (4) Try the squint test: Continuous staring at screen harms visions, take a break and view the design with partially closed eyes. Squint few times, and the prominent aspects of the design will be clearly visible; Provides clarity on website's focal points and sections that are to be highlighted. (5) Black, white and gray should be your starting point: Beginning with shades of gray and then adding colors helps to create a website that lets user focus on the crucial aspects of the site; Also helps to prevent from overdesigning a page. Moreover, technology facilitates creativity and helps design better websites through following ways - Seamless integration; Breaking down barriers; Creative alliances; Informational accessiblity; Advanced graphic tools; Expert feedback; Low cost of failure; Massive marketing platform; Adapt to survive; Percolation of creativity. Read on...

Business 2 Community: 5 Ways Web Designers Can Create Amazing Websites
Author: Amy Hayes

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 jun 2016

Designers need continuous flow of creative ideas and motivation in their work. Sometimes they reach a state of creative block when they lack internal motivation and inspiration to generate ideas. In such situations an external source of inspiration would be of assistance. Following are 8 online resources for designers that can provide the spark of creativity and rekindle inspiration - (1) Designspiration: A design portal that has architecture, typography, illustrations and print. Features the work of global artists and innovators. (2) Dribbble: A hub for creatives to connect, share and inspire one another. Includes typography, website design, logos, illustrations and graphics. Designers can also be hired through the site. (3) Awwards: Recognizes best designed website from around the world. Jury comprises of renowned designers, bloggers and agencies. It rates websites and gives score comprised of different elements, including creativity, design, content and usability. (4) Siteinspire: Has some of the best filtering of any design portal. Can choose from multiple categories, and follow designers and their work. (5) Smashing Magazine: Includes editorial and professional resources for designers and developers. Have blogs from designers. (6) The Best Designs: Includes web design works of best designers. Helps find, connect with and share work with other designers. (7) Behance: Have archives of graphic design, photography, interactive design, art direction, illustration and more. (8) Adobe Kuler: As color is one of the most important aspect of design, Adobe Kuler can help one share, create and browse color schemes from designers and users around the world. Read on...

Business 2 Community: 8 Incredible Online Resources for Creative Design Inspiration
Author: Brittney Ervin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 dec 2015

Although government of UK states that the creative industries in the country now equal £76.9 billion per year, and the design sector seeing the biggest growth. But there is another debate brewing in UK regarding the condition of design and creative education. According to John Sorrell, founder of London Design Festival and Creative Industries Federation, 'Schools in UK saw a 50% decrease in students taking design and technology GSEC (General Certificate of Secondary Education) subjects in the 10 years leading upto 2013, and 25% drop in other craft-related GCSEs between 2007 and 2013.' He says that the government is reducing investments in creative education that would eventually lead to inadequate development of the next generation of creative talent. He explains, 'It is the government's calling card everywhere in the world...it's this amazing work we're part of which makes Britain so loved by the rest of the world - our creativity.' He further adds, 'If we can get our act together and work together we can take advantage of the opportunities in international development that certainly China is going to be doing in the next 20 years.' Similar sentiments were recently voiced by this year's London Design Medal winners, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, who said 'UK government doesn't value the role of creativity.' Another angle to this debate was provided by inventor James Dyson, who criticized the UK government's steps regarding the foreign students to return home after completing their education. This immigration plan will threaten UK's status as a global design and architecture center. Read on...

dezeen: Design education in the UK is being "marginalised" says John Sorrell
Author: Dan Howarth

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 mar 2015

Web design is a constantly evolving field. New concepts, technologies and designs give rise to new trends, that some time stay and catch on user's attention while at other times they just fizzle out in popularity. But there are also designs that stay too long in use due their popularity at one point of time but in actuality they have already lost their shine. Repetition of old ideas and trends just because of being comfortable and familiar with them may lead to loss of customers and business. Ilya Pozin, CEO of Pluto TV and Ciplex, explains why the following five web design trends have become obsolete and should be replaced by new concepts - (1) Mobile versions of websites are not cool anymore. Innovative designers are using responsive design that allows the layout to adjust based on the contextual experience of users. It provides fully integrated experience irrespective of the width of the user's device. (2) Text-heavy websites are unable to hold user attention. More designs now have precise text integrated with visuals like images and videos alongwith interactive functionality. (3) SEO copywriting, which was large part of web design and promotion at one time, is now should be replaced by developing keyword informed and user-centric content. (4) Pay-per-click advertising is losing its popularity as new technology tools are available that utilize new mediums and new targeting capablities to reach precise customer segments. Some new concepts are contextual advertising, online video and highly targeted product ads. (5) Designs below 200 pixels per inch (ppi) is getting obsolete as new devices are adopting retina displays. If the design resolution is low it gives poor quality on these displays. Moreover most web design is now more simplified with flat user interface and avoids use of gradients and shadows that provided three-dimensional look. Read on...

Forbes: Let It Go - Say Farewell To These 5 Web Design Trends
Author: Ilya Pozin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 may 2013

Packaging plays an important role in enhancing attractiveness of the product and can substantially facilitate its consumption. A global design firm in one of its projects that is intended to cultivate an open and active design culture and to encourage experimentation, focuses on 'packaging design' this year. The design ideation process considers two aspects- relationship (how the user interfaces with the product and its impressions) and tensions (identifies the disconnect between the user and the product). The design process included three steps- (1) selection of an ordinary object from daily life (2) selection of verb that may or may not correspond to the object (3) imbue the project with an emotion representing reason for design. The process lead to some very innovative packaging designs. Read on...

Fast Company: Ideo Imagines 18 Packaging Concepts For The Future
Author: Sammy Medina

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