Pixelube

Category

Wired’s - The Best Album Art of all Time (Reader’s Choice)

David Bowie Diamond Dogs

This is, of course, a hard argument. So many albums, so much beautiful art, design and illustration. There are a few that stick out that in my mind that shouldn’t be missed; what about Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, or Queen’s “News of the World” ? I can think of hundreds more… Either way, this article, “Best Album Art of All Time, Readers Choice Edition” by Wired’s Scott Thill is definitely worth a look. The related article “The Best Album Art of all Time” is worth a read as well. Enjoy!

Pixelube Works with Seattle Company thePlatform to Modernize the Existing Logo and Brand Design

With website design coming in an easy second, logo design is my favorite. For as many logos as I’ve created, regardless of the many years and experience, I always find myself chalk full of anxiety at the outset of a brand project. There was no exception when the folks at thePlaform approached Pixelube to update the company logo. For me, it may in fact be a bit more intimidating to modify a logo rather then starting from scratch. Why you say? There are a variety of reasons, namely:

1. thePlatform brand has equity in the market-place therefore we need to try and maintain some of the key brand traits.

2. There are a limited number of design assets to work with in the original logo so we have to use what’s already been created as a baseline

3. We needed to create a mark that was flexible enough so that it could work with some of the exiting family of graphics

thePlatform Logos From old to New

Initially, my gut told me to create something flat, in fact, I found myself pushing back on the client when the main request was to make it 3 dimensional. It, of course, is part of our job to listen to the client so for the first couple reviews, we mixed flat options in with logo treatments that were a bit more 3 dimensional. I quickly came to realize that the client wasn’t going to budge. The flat versions just were not going to work.

Of the many, many roughs that didn’t actually make the cut, we ended up presenting about 25 logos before we actually honed in on something that the client was happy with. From there we tweaked, re-worked and modified the various fonts, shapes and color to come up with the final brand.

thePlatform Print Collateral

I’ve found that we always get the best results when we’re really able to collaborate with the client. Sure there are times when one feels like x,y or z may not be the best choice a client could make but more often then not, if you listen and use your creative energy to satisfy both the client and yourself, you’re probably going to come up with a great mark that everyone can be proud of.

Microsoft OEM Brand & Logo Design—It’s Great Working with our Redmond Neighbors

Microsoft OEM Logos

Wow, get this, after 28 various marks we then honed in on the final. From there we created 192 variations of the same logo. This, of course, included localization, 1 color and print/rgb versions. Once the logo was complete we had the pleasure of working on additional collateral which helped to define the look and feel of the new brand, namely the style guide, website mastheads, a power point template and business cards, to name a few.

 

iPad Application Design – Pixelube’s First!

BigOven iconA couple years ago we had the pleasure of meeting and working with the folks over at BigOven. We collaborated to create the new brand and web site for BigOven.com. Since then the site has grown by leaps and bounds. They’ve launched a variety of new features, released an iPhone app and over the weekend BigOven debuted its new iPad application.

I have yet to purchase an iPad but it has been a true pleasure to work on the UI design for BigOven’s application. Due to a dedicated team made up of a handful of super-smart folks, we were lucky enough to be one of the featured apps in the iPad store upon this weekend’s debut.

The BigOven iPad application has a variety of great features. The app taps into BigOven’s database of over 170,000 plus recipes contributed by a gamut of users ranging from the novice to the professional chef. Users are empowered to:

  • Look up any recipe or post your own, free, to BigOven.com
  • Create grocery lists from recipes
  • Sync grocery lists via the web, iPhone and or Android
  • Post and organize your own recipes via BigOven.com
  • Post and read user-generated recipe reviews
  • View and post photos and much more…

ipad-anim

We try not to toot our horns much over here but felt compelled to quote our big BigOven client:

“Vince, I’m such a fan of the clean, crisp look you’ve created, from the logo itself to the colors, and the brand signature that you created just rules the roost. The graphic design of this app makes it really something special. ~Steve Murch”


You can take a quick peek of the application here.

All of the hype wrapped around the new iPad has been interesting, to say the least. Especially interesting are the variety of press and reviews wrapped around our application. They started to trickle in last Monday. If you’re interested, you can see a few of them here:

Oh, and of course, if you’re interested in purchasing the BigOven app, you can do so here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/170-000-recipes-grocery-list/id364151212?mt=8

50 More Free Font Resources to Hone Your Web Design Skills

Typography for the Web

When used wisely fonts can engage and complement your site in a variety of ways. From examples of great typography, to various font matrices to the extremely popular sIFR, if you’re a web designer I’m sure there’s something here that will help.

Check Out Smashing Magazine’s Ginormous List!

Typography on the Web - Grab the CSS!

Typechart

Created by Panduka Senaka, Typechart is a great resource for browsing and visualizing various web font treatments. Find the treatment you like and grab the CSS for it. It’s simple and an excellent resource.

Vist Typechart

The Importance of Being Pretty

Yes, first impressions do count. Oh, and let’s not forget variety. See what the Canadian researchers from Carleton University had to say about web design. It was posted on Wired’s blog almost two years ago but it’s still very-much valid!

See the full Wired post story here…

Strange and Beautiful Stop Motion

Neil Gaiman’s new project looks incredibly intriguing. It can’t come too soon!

“It’s the biggest, most strange, expressive, peculiar, enormous stop-motion film I think that’s ever been made,” Gaiman told Wired.com. “Everything is created, everything is handmade.”

See the full Wired post story here…

Pixelube Launches Connected TV Lifestyle Films Site

In collaboration with Seattle companies Switch’d Development and the Spring Creek Group, we launched Connected TV Lifestyle Films site just a few days ago. The site works as a spring board to build a community wrapped around DIY films based on Microsoft Media Room. Via the Switch’d Dev team, we were able to fully integrate the site with Microsoft’s Soapbox site. Pixelube was responsible for creative direction, flash creation and the basic build. This was and has been a great project. We hope to see it grow!

Finally - The New Pixelube Site Has Launched!

Yup, after a full year of fidgeting, designing, re-designing, adjusting, pixel-pushing and WordPress updates we’ve finally launched the official new web site. Oh, and not to mention a fully refreshed portfolio.

About

Pixelube is a design studio based in Seattle Washington. We specialize in logo, identity, web and print design—design that sparks interest, builds equity and generates revenue.

Subscribe to RSS Feed

Categories

Tag Cloud

Recent Posts:

Say Hello:

  • Visit Us:
  • 1335 N Northlake Way, Suite K
  • Seattle, WA 98103
  • Mailing Address:
  • 2212 Queen Anne Ave. N. #706
  • Seattle, WA 98109

Services:

© 1999 - 2010 Pixelube, Inc. All Rights Reserved