A few months ago FRESHTHRILLS was approached by URBAN Studio to redesign and develop their very dated portfolio website. They were attracted to our clean design aesthetic and our elegant use of flash. We designed and developed the main website and created a custom flash based content management system.
Technology
Flash, AS2, SWFAddress and XML.
www.urbanstudionyc.com
Enjoy.
I was recently introduced to the Geneva Sound Systems, discribed as a high-end music furniture business. The product is a clean simple design and on the company website they explain that, “We are also minimalist about features, adding only those functions we feel are essential to a good experience.” Amen to that.
Check out this great package design for Beauty Bank by BorsaWallace.
While FRESHTHRILLS is primarily an interactive design studio, our interest in design is not limited to the Flash and HTML. We are also interested in Product Design, footwear to be specific.
We admire designers who solve problems no matter what medium and we appreciate simple and elegant solutions. This discussion is not about trend steppers like the Nike Dunks or classic dress shoes like the Oxford but instead we’re focusing on smaller brands who offer great alternatives to the boring dress up shoe without sacrificing detail, quality and style. We find these to be perfect for interviews or meeting with a client. Check out the latest collections from The Generic Man, zuriick and Common Project we think you’ll like them too.
In the business of design staying fresh is always a top priority and inspiration can come in many forms. Understanding the ins and outs of the business of design is equally important and knowing how to deal with clients and creative is the typical juggle of a small design studio like us. In our constant pursuit of growth and progression we’ve read and re read many books on both topics.
In the studio along with the many magazines, tear sheets, postcards, business cards, sketchbooks, we also have a great collection of books on the subject of business and design, books like The Business Side of Creativity by Cameron S. Foote, who’s first, second and third editions dog-eared from use editions grace our bookshelf and gets used regularly.
On the creative side, we have many books covering Interactive Design and Development, Advertising, Branding, Naming, Logo design and Identity strategy. These books are not only essential for creativity but they serve as valuable business tool as well.
Whether you’re a designer or a client trying to learn more about the design business, here’s a short list of books you should consider reading.
The Designers Research Manual
The Design Entrepreneur
Logo Savvy
Masters of Design: Logos & Identity
Designing Brand Identity
For all you logo fiends, Los Logos 4 has just been released. Over 500 pages of logo inspiration from some of the best talent out there. You can get it now or pre-order it on Amazon.
I’ve traveled to a few of the most creatively inspiring cities in the world and the common thread among them are the every present displays of creativity on the street. On a recent trip to Europe I stopped in Paris and Lisbon two cities with exceptional talents in street art. In Paris you can see delivery trucks decorated with it moving around the city you even you see it’s influence in museums and galleries.
While in Paris I visited the famed Centre Pompidou it currently features a great collection of modern art and a few pieces reflect the Street Art style.
In Lisbon I visited The Berardo Collection which also has an amazing collection of modern art from a single collector.
If so, perhaps this was a bad week to start this blog. But you be the judge.
On Wednesday, European laboratory for particle physics CERN (the guys who brought you the internet) will switch on their Large Hadron Collider. This machine will recreate the first nanoseconds of the Big Bang. Now, they say this is completely safe but some theoretical physicists believe the collider will create small black holes that will eventually grow and grow and consume the planet.
Personally I think the boys at CERN have it all under control and I understand this information may be invaluable to science. But did they really need to test this on Earth. You’d think they’d want to test something like this a little further from the only planet we humans have.
Whether you’ve gotten a chance to get your hands on CS3 or not, Adobe is about to take another crack at it’s flagship software package. Normally I’d say this is far too early to be releasing such a costly product, but like most CS3 users I’m fed up with the half-ass job that went into putting the current version together. From simple mistakes like not having the same keyboard shortcuts across all CS apps, to the poor typography of Flash, this now puts a lot of pressure on Adobe to get it right.
I’m hoping Adobe is paying attention to it’s hard core users. And while this might be taking it a little too far, I completely understand the excitement and pain that goes with an Adobe upgrade.
