Three Good Examples & Three Bad Examples of Design

Physical

            Good IPAD: 

Apple has developed tremendous products over the years, and one product that I think has great design is the IPAD.  The product is sleek, light, and thin.  It comes with a built in camera to take photos or video, but the image quality could be better.  The user interface is outstanding.  It is user friendly for all ages and easy to navigate between screens of apps by sliding left or right.  The apps on the screen are spaced out evenly giving it a well-balanced layout. 

             Bad Coffee Maker:   

I have had this coffee maker for many year now and I like almost everything about it because it is easy to use and clean.  The biggest downside of this product is the design of the On and Off switch.  By looking at it, a user would not be able to tell whether to press the switch to the right or left to turn it On or Off.  There have been times when our coffee maker has been on for hours which can be a fire hazard.

Local

            Good Assembly Hall/State Farm Center:  

 I really like the way this basketball arena was built.  Its design and construction attracts my attention all the time.  Looking at the concrete dome shape from the ground up at night or day reminds me of a space ship that just landed.  I like the way the light shines at night from the dome and reflects onto the shapes of the ceiling exterior.  Also, the dome shape is the focal point of the structure, but within that it has interesting lines of symmetry.

Bad Doodles Restaurant:   

This restaurant recently closed in Champaign, Illinois.  I wonder why?  When I look at the interior design it screams bad layout.  The seating area looks like picnic style seating.  The layout of the menu is placed right above where customers sit and eat, and the placement of the garbage bin is in wrong place.  Why would someone want to eat next to bad odor?  Not me. 

Digital

            Good Web Design:   

I like how the site is well-balanced from the typography to the images.  Right away this site leads the consumer to its product and focal point (ice cream).  Visually it looks simple and not too cluttered making it easy to read.  The logo has this smooth organic feel just like their ice cream images.  The page has established good unity between the color, shapes, typography, links, and logo. 

Bad Pepsi Ad:   

My first instinct when I saw this ad was “What?” Who ever designed the marketing ad did not do a very good job with the use of proper font (Typography).  By looking at it, I quickly thought that it  said “Pepsi & Rape” instead of Pepsi &  Aape  (Japanese clothing company A Bathing Ape's line AAPE.)  The ad ran in Hong Kong just over a year ago, during which it caused quite a bit of controversy.

Livebooks Company

This is a very big Web site that I came across liveBooks.  I linked to it by viewing one of their clients in the HOW October 2009 magazine.  There is some very interesting information that can relate to our Project 2 coming up.  For its size, its layout is really well done.  Its readability is nice and clean and I think they use a Helvetica font for the typography.  Very easy to navigate and the viewer does not get bored at all.  The company promotes themselves well and on what they do.  They provide great examples of work that they have done for their clients. The only negative that I found was that when you scale the browser window, it is not vertically or horizontally centered which is what we were learning in class.

Design Army Studio

I found Design Army in the HOW magazine October 2010 issue.  It is orginally a graphic design studio and have done some great work for their clients in art direction, websites, branding, etc.  They have done very good looking websites for their clients.  I browsed their website and liked the colors used and how very clean, elegant and simple it is.  No clutter at all.  Very easy to read and navigate through.  I believe they use a Helvetica font.  As you navigate, everything is always in the center of the browser.  The company promotes their previous clients web design work with images, but link you to their specific site in a new browser window. 

What they do at Shotopop

I was reading the July 2010 Computer Arts magazine and came across a designer named Shotopop who does digital llustration and design for print, as well as interactive and motion graphics. You can view his site at: http://www.shotopop.com/. He has done some Web Design work for other clients. Shotopop's website is simply designed and easy to navigate. The navigational bar never changes as you browse throught their site. On the homepage at the very top is its focal point to me because the words keep changing, which tell the viewer exactly what they do. The target audience are those who want digital illustration, design for print and interactive media. They also create motion graphics. The site has photos, illustrations, and videos as their visual elements. I believe that the font used in the site is Futura. Overall, it was a cool site to look at.

Guitar Songs

This image was found in the Communication Arts - Magazine February 2009.  Really like the simple black and white background and the typography layout.  On one side it is white and on the other it is black.  The designer is Hampus Jageland from Sydney, Australia.  He did a really good job of using the logo to communicate the sequence of numbers and letters that build up guitar tabs.  It is in book form that contains the guitar tabs for the song on the white side as well as a little information sections based on the numbers on the black side.

Chef Burger

These images were found in the HOW-magazine of June 09.  Chef Burger is the name of the restaurant in Kansas City, MO.  The way they designed the character (ChefBurger) and its restaurants identity is very eye catching.  The logo only uses two colors and works well with their bag.  The different burger icons on the coasters are because of the different toppings each burger has for its customers.  These icons have their own unique personality.  I really liked their idea, I thought it was very creative.  

The Venture Bros. Season 2

This image was found in the Communication Arts magazine - November 2008.  I really liked the style of the DVD packaging.  The front cover is kept simple and stands out with the color.  It has a very old vintage style poster look with strong bold, simple typography.  Also, I like how the inside bifold spread tells a story and is consistent with the colors.