Cooking by Design
Alright, alright, I’ve been remiss. Apologies for the extra-long pause in posts. First work took over, then applications took over, and now, in this new year, I hope to be somewhat more consistent about putting thoughts to page.
During the winter months I tend to turn to cooking as a way to warm up (hot oven!), relax (great smells!), and hang with friends and family (who doesn’t love a home-cooked meal?). Recently I was cooking for a friend and told her, quite naturally, that I cook by color. What I didn’t realize is that this is not the way everyone thinks. Loads of people cook by recipe, and while I think that recipes are fine guidelines and excellent teachers, it’s far more interesting to cook by taste and by look.
Cooking by color, or by design, works best with things like salads where the ingredients are kept fresh. Bright cherry tomatoes, crisp bell peppers (in three colors, swooooon), and creamy-green avocados dance together to make a gorgeous, playful visual. The saddest dish by far, color-wise, has to be cream of mushroom soup. While I love the stuff dearly, it’s next to impossible to forget that depressing gray tone.
One of the best parts about cooking by design is that no one dish needs to be color-perfect– an assembly of parts can make for a visually (and gastronomically) satisfying meal. A well-browned meat, dark leafy green vegetables, light saffron rice, and a cheeky fruit juice or wine is more than enough to make a square meal. Often when I feel that a meal is missing something essential, I look to the colors to show me what’s lacking. And often it’s the green that is falling down on the job.
So when you’re next in the kitchen, think about your meal and how it will look once on your plate. Even if it’s a one-dish concoction, like pasta, make it hearty with tomatoes, zucchini, shrimp, and parmesan to give it some real color. Top it off with a sprig of parsley and you’re ready for anything. Both your eyes and your stomach will be pleased.
Zip-up headphones
Very cool idea from Yanko Design. Though who’s to say that even the zipped-up headphones wouldn’t get tangled up? At least this minimizes the clutter. A bold, modern, and yet elegant solution to the everyman’s (or everyaudiophile’s) problem.
Alcohol + design
For some reason alcohol has a place of pride in the design world. Maybe it’s the vast amount of money that is sunk into making the image of a brand appealing across all demographics, or perhaps it’s the product that lends itself to the idea of excess by way of outlandish and experimental design. One way or the other, the packaging design industry seems worth its weight in booze because of a constant need for new beer, wine, and hard liquor labels– not to mention the numerous accoutrement associated with mixing, pouring and serving said beverages.
I could extrapolate all this to encompass cigars, sex, etc. But why bother? There’s more than enough to work with in alcohol, and designers are certainly having a field day with the material given. Take this Spanish red I found at Whole Foods. Nothing top-shelf about it, but the design was both eye-catching and persuasive. I’ve been known to pass a bland bottle by because I didn’t feel the design could possibly give way to a great product. I’ve also been hoodwinked by the occasional beautifully-designed but sub-par beverage. In the end, it’s once again very difficult to judge a book by its cover– and in this case, a bottle by its label.
Verstyl
An ex-colleague of mine is setting up his own photography studio and asked me to help with a logo for the burgeoning business. I find it very useful to inspect what others have done when it comes to logos. Often I’m both surprised and impressed with how clever and intelligent the final products can be.
As it turns out, photography logos seem to lean greatly toward graphical representations of shutters, tripods, and lenses. Go figure. When it comes to obvious (some might say “cliché”) solutions to design problems, I used to avoid them at all costs. Now I believe that even the clichés have value if they’re done right.
That said, the identity solution I came up with for Verstyl includes, yes, a shutter– however it also integrates the main letter of the company name and can easily be diced up into its parts and still look both complete and stylish. Looking forward to seeing some good things from Verstyl Photography.
Key/ring
This sort of marriage of form & function should happen more often. Very cool. Via PSFK.
Illusions in Design
When one thinks of optical illusions, I’m willing to bet that crazy moving circles and walls that appear curved come to mind. I studied illusions in undergrad and had a great time researching how the mind can play tricks on the eye. But I quickly learned that regardless of how many garish, in-your-face examples of illusions are out there, there are much more elegant and real-world-applicable examples in one’s own work.
Graphic design is all about perception. If your design for a beverage campaign doesn’t make people thirsty for the product, you haven’t succeeded in achieving your goal, regardless of how good your intentions were. Or, if your poster design does not make your audience want to continue examining the information presented, your design is not effective. Distilling this down to the most basic concept: regardless of your intention, audience perception of your work is paramount.
Applied in the most basic way, visually: if your intention is to make a straight line, if it is not seen as straight by your audience then your goal was not achieved. In the image above, the lefthand example is of a truly straight line cutting a vertical bar. The righthand example is of a ‘visually correct’ straight line cutting the same bar. The intention did not stand up to the perception in this case, and so visual corrections had to be made. This manifests in all sorts of design work and conscientious designers are always aware that they will have to make allowances for their audiences.
One of the clearest real-life examples I can think of is in identity design. At a large scale, an identity may be complex, colorful, with light typefaces and subtle tonal changes. The same logo at a small scale will have to be adjusted: tonal changes are intensified, typefaces are bolder, and the designer may have to leave some of that beautiful complexity behind for the sake of easy viewing and safe reproduction.
It is said that “good design is invisible”– and in this case, it is very true. Allowing an audience to move through a visual design without being jarred by the realization that they are looking at something “designed” in the first place, is the ultimate goal. Addressing these visual fixes certainly isn’t the most exciting part of a designer’s job, but I believe it’s one of the most important parts of being a good maker.
Grid systems
In my opinion, grid systems are underrated. Lots of designers have a bone to pick with people who create text in Photoshop or use Comic Sans, but me? I feel like these people would be absolved of their sins if only they’d stick to applying their use of Comic Sans to a grid system. (Who am I kidding? I have a bone to pick with those folks, too.)
Again, on my quest to figure out how to balance web design and graphic design (they are definitely not the same thing) I’m finding some amazing sites that put forth best practices in design as easy-to-digest, web-centric experiences. The application of grid systems to web design is one of the easiest ways for designers to attain some semblance of structure and clarity in what could otherwise be a very chaotic situation.
On that note, it is worth visiting Fluid 960 Grid System and playing around a little. Even if you know all there is to know about grids, the beauty of the site might inspire you to think inside the box once again.