REVIEW: LogoBids

Design Contest Website Launches 

LogoBids is a site that just launched on July 25, 2008 in which design contests of all shapes and sizes are posted with cash rewards for the winning design. There's several other sites like this out there, CrowdSpring, DesignContests, Graphic Competitions, and many many more. The thing I like about this one in particular is that it's just starting out. There's a ton of things to be improved and functionality added but the site has promise. As a test I spent about an hour creating an entry for a company called "ITnow". For only spending an hour on them they're aren't too bad in my opinion but no where near finished.



I think small sites like these offer full-time employed designers (like myself) an fun opportunity to stretch their creative skills into areas they don't otherwise get a chance to utilize on a day to day level. There's no real commitment so you only invest the time you have/want plus you can get some extra cash...sweet!



Check out the site for yourself. They have a handy suggestion box on the homepage that easily lets users provide feedback and see what suggestions are getting implemented. If you get a chance to check it out a bit let me know what you think here. The more I get into this, the more I'll likely add to this post.

Sarah Hankinson Makes Me Want to Draw Again!

As of late I've been hyper-intrigued by illustrations; particularly those with a painterly or sketchy style. So much so, that it's managed to work it's way into my interface concept designs for SmithBucklin (more on that later...fyi that link is the design we're currently refreshing).

But quickly, I just wanted to share with you the work of Sarah Hankinson which I just stumbled upon via Design is Kinky. I admire the free form feel and unfinished style of the above illustration Hankinson is able to achieve. At the same time however, she's able to balance that style with something a little more finished and detailed while still leaving just enough to your imagination (and yes...I'm still talking about the drawing style here ;)

More on Sarah in her own words, "Melbourne Illustrator Sarah Hankinson creates feminine yet striking works which play off broken lines and occasional splashes of colour. After graduating from a diploma of Illustration in 2004 commissions have come from Kookai, Bonds and Impulse Body Spray whilst her work has appeared in publications including Urbis, Cleo, Chik, Computer Arts Project, STU, and Curve magazines.

Sarah’s illustration style is elegant, youthful, and strongly fashion orientated, many of her pieces focusing on the female form and made up from a variety of mediums including inks, charcoal, pencils, cut paper and fabrics.

Sarah has exhibited at ‘Chapel off Chapel’ and ‘Design A Space’ galleries in Prahran, Melbourne."

Design Responsibly

Web 2.0 Styles Have Gone Mad
Seriously, what gives? I think the "QUAKR 2.0ats" is the only clever one; the rest are just style overlays from the most part or borrow from existing logos such as Flickr.

Enough with the 'Web 2.0' styling it's played out already! I still respect a little reflection and shine here and there but to combine that with the bright colors, gradients, not to mention 'bubbly' fonts (see 3m, John Deere, Wal-mart, etc. logos above) it just too much not to mention sophomoric.

I understand that this particular graphic was pieced together from a Flickr post as a graphic design experiment and is not meant to be taken all that seriously but I can't help but raise a red flag here signaling the abuse of this style.

The style has a place in the design world, but let's all make sure that we're judicious in it's actual application.

Design responsibly.

More photo search finds

What kind of caption can you come up with for these photos I found on Gettyimages while searching for "layer of earth"

#1
















#2















#3

Oh...the things you find whilst photo searching!

As a Visual Designer I have to do my fair share of photo searching. I have to say that some of the things one comes across on on stock photography sites such as Veer, GettyImages, iStockphoto, and the like are quite surprising and often hilarious. From time-to-time I'll post these odd-balls and throw out a suggested caption or two. What kind of caption would you write for these photos? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

#1
Search criteria:"growth"






















Captions:

1. Larry had suspected that he had used too much Miracle Grow.
2. 9 out of 10 employees prefer a grass-free work environment
3. Grass on desktops makes for difficult mousing and itchy elbows
4. Taking personal growth to a whole level

#2
Search criteria: can't remember but think it was 'full-length, person'






















Captions:
I'm not sure i even want to tackle this one. I would very much however like to find out what the original thought/direction on this was. Wow! It's almost too good for a caption.

As I find more I'll post them!
Happy photo searching!

Spicing up the 404

Forget the 411 buddy, the 404 is where it's at these days! While custom error pages are nothing new, over the past months I've noticed a growing trend of fun and quirky 404 Page not Found designs that I think more companies should consider doing. Let's face it, broken links happen but it's best to present your visitors with a more pleasant experience rather than a jarring ERROR!!!!!???? Below are a few examples I've come across recently:

IAC Advertising
In this instance I was simply trying to follow an Evite invitation link from my email. While Evite was down for some reason AIC Advertising "invites" me to check out some of their other websites while I wait for traffic to die down. Hmm, not a bad idea. If your servers are down for one site instead of losing your audience all together why not try to navigate them to another site that you at least own?

Others

A personal touch...






















My all time favorite!!!
While not a functioning 404 page it's still pretty fun to watch.