2011 is going to be the year for typography in web design. With the rise of CCS3 and several fantasticfont-embeddingsolutions, web designers and developers have a complete type palette without using images or unreliable font-substitutions.
To act as inspiration and as a model for how simple typography can be employed as an expressive element, I turned to the classic Blue Note Album covers from the mid 50’s. The designs use simple geometry and beautiful typefaces to create striking and icon designs.
The original designs, created by Reid Miles designer for Esquire Magazine, were a combination of Miles’ Bauhaus aesthetic and Francis Wolff’s photography. The covers are representative of a mood and a feeling that visually defines Jazz music. The use of high-contrast 2 color designs and modern typefaces feel as bold and sharp as the tracks themselves.
If you are not familiar with the Blue Note Designs, take a moment to seesome of the moreclassicdesigns or pick up an album for the experience in it’s entirety.
I became interested in embedded operating systems like those found in cars early this year while developing ideas for clients. While the idea of designing special interfaces for drivers is as old as the automobile, making intuitive interfaces for computers and people without visuals is a somewhat less developed art. For these interfaces to work for a distracted driver barreling down the freeway is all new territory for almost all User Interface (UI) designers.
So why not leave automotive design to the auto-industry? Because the auto industry is coming to the user interface designer. Particularly, the explosion of smartphone ownership and a crack-down on handset use while driving will spur a market for applications to help the driver navigate, monitor conditions and make changes to their environment. Auto manufactures are quickly recognizing the need to create a safe and easy way to allow drivers to use their devices. Ford, an early adopter to in-cabin technology has announced a solution for developers to interface smartphones with their SYNC technology.
Ford’s AppLink SYNC SDK will allow for the voice-activated system in the car (which is already charged with navigation, audio and communication controls) to control applications on iOS (iPhone), Android and BlackBerry devices. Although Ford is not the only company to provide an computer control interface or voice-activated controls, it is the first to have a solution that developers are gravitating to.
Currently, the SYNC system, is only available in Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles. Similar systems are available from GM (marketed under the OnStar brand) and Chrysler (UConnect), but few foreign car builders are providing a challenge to Ford. None of Ford’s competitors are as fast to provide solutions for developer either. For a market driven by technology, the uptake by the development community will fuel both innovation and adoption.
For someone who is designing solutions for consumers to take advantage of technology while driving, Ford’s AppLink is the first step to modern design solutions for developers and user interface experts. Currently, the SDK will provide developers the ability to use voice control, steering wheel buttons, text-to-speech features and vehicle data (speed, gps location, etc).
Although in-vehicle application development provides challenges, the ability to present the driver with solutions for comfort, communication, health and safety is a completely new frontier that had previously been limited to those in automotive circles.
Working with the healthcare industry presents a lot of creative challenges: Legal disclaimers, required safety information, “small” print that appears at an equal font-size to headlines, lack of visual dividers between content and legalize. There are a lot of challenges.
I believe healthcare advertising presents opportunity. A creative person can certainly look at the constrictions and see many hurdles. A very creative person sees a challenge and a niche. Within this niche is a huge chance to find kernels of genius and stretch within the box presented by such a regulated industry.
It’s too easy to look at design obstacles and not think of who and what you are designing or writing for or how you can help educate your clients and legal council. I think that all too often designers, writers and brand teams don’t take advantage of how new this media is and just how versatile. All too often a design may be criticized due to a lack of understanding or miss-understood application.
For users, although there are many things you can’t say and many more things you must say, getting to information and health content quickly and easily is critical. Imagine a patient, newly diagnosed with a disease that is severe, or worse yet, potentially terminal. How does this person navigate your website or application? What language do you use? What call to action? Despite having legal disclaimers and safety information, how is your user going to approach learning about your treatment or offering? How is this scared, confused and potentially confused patient going to find disease and treatment information.
Healthcare professional content should have similar consideration. How does a busy doctor determine which product is the right choice for their patient? For which disease state and indication? How can he find information or educational material to alleviate their patient’s fears and worries?
This post isn’t designed as a pulpit piece, but rather as something to center creative thought when it feels weakened by some of the constraints presented by regulated industry. It’s written as a lens for the efforts of those working beneath layers of decision makers and stake-holders. It should also be a rally cry for educating this same group that presents the challenges. Educating and informing those who are making requirements is the best way to sway and alter their perspective.
You will have to believe in your work and be it’s advocate to win these groups over and change what can be done in our industry for the better. You will have to be an evangelist and tireless to provide alternatives and put your best effort forward regardless of how receptive the audience.
The GAP, a clothing retailer, recently learned how social media can influence their brand in a bad way. After revealing their new logo, executives where confronted with an audience unhappy with the new helvetica based, simplified brand-mark. Afraid of a backlash, marketing officers quickly retreated from their decision to launch the new logo and replaced it with the previous iteration.
How was this the wrong decision? Unfortunately, the GAP is being short-sited in it’s handling of the situation. The logo, designed by the agency Laird & Partners, is intended as an evolutionary component of retail branding already in place in over 3,100 locations. The stores, almost completely dominated by in high-contrast helvetica type are an excellent example of uniformity and icon brand identity. That brand identity has one exception, their logo. The implementation of this new logo (aesthetics aside) would solidify retail identity, online, and major media marketing. This is the position that likely led to the logo’s creation and one that should have been held to in the logo’s implementation.
Crowd sourcing is a term that GAP executive had mentioned in the spin following the logo being repealed. I don’t believe that major branding decisions or the wisdom of the masses would result in any impactful branding presence. Rather, the use of the “collective” lends itself better to viral media or the use of products in the market. The mention of this is as a solution is an escape from having to stand your ground as a leader-and in the case of the GAP, a leader in fashion and aesthetics.
Social media, powerful as it is in the distribution of message is a poor creation vehicle. The vision and focus that is required to create great things must come with a vision. This vision is not housed on Facebook or Twitter. Part of using these mediums is knowing their strengths and understanding that you have to control the message-especially when it is an unpopular one. It is very likely that the resistance to the GAP’s new identity would have never effected sales nor would anyone have paid much attention after several days had passed.
Although I don’t think that the new logo would have yielded a design award, it worked well with and represented the GAP brand very well.
The work of Aaron Trinder, this short looks at the desks of great creative minds and what those desks, in their various states, symbolize. I’ve developed a bit of a fasination with desks and workspaces lately. I’m enthrawled with setupsandspaces and deskography. Although a desk is an open space-a sometime very public one, it’s incredibly intimate. It shows your processes, inspirations, loves, weaknesses and vices and the short shows all of that with the dignity it deserves.
Chris Cullmann is a Creative Director and Online Strategist. He works for Ogilvy CommonHealth Interactive Marketing, a digital agency dedicated to healthcare marketing. His professional and personal portfolio includes interactive websites, viral and social media, and online education applications. His portfolio and observations about the design and marketing industry can be found at www.cullmanndesign.com
The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not reflect those of my employer or those who I am professionally connected.
2011 is going to be the year for typography in web design. With the rise of CCS3 and several fantastic font-embedding solutions, web designers and developers have a complete type palette without using images or unreliable font-substitutions.
