Adobe Awards

MOTORIDERY from Ivan Alonso on Vimeo.
I plan on entering this when I get the voice over completed. The animation is getting better too.

The main reason I want to enter this is because of the way it uses adobe products. Thanks to adobe, I have designed a toolkit of visual language in illustrator Cs5 and composed screens in Photoshop Cs5. Taking it further to the final stretch I used adobe after effects Cs5.5 to animate the app as well as export an MOV that explains the culture and app. I think it speaks to how most design is. Never in one place or program.

MotoRidery- A Tailored Iphone App

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I C O N   P R O C E S S

D I G I T A L    W I R E F R A M E S

G O O G L E    M A P S

P R O C E S S

I C O N

W I R E F R A M E S

This is the process for an app I have been conceptualizing on for Motorcycle enthusiasts. A value that we identified during our user research was the A. riding and B. riding with friends. I wanted to make an iphone app that would allow the user to be connected with riders in their area allowing them to join and schedule rides, social events ( aka hanging at the bar) and setting up charity rides. The app is responsive to "current location" that the iphone uses for its GPS. The user inputs his or her interests and key criteria when prompted while signing up. a profile is made for them and they can then start finding rides and riders. In addition to this main component of the app, the application will also provide bar and dive information and locations, weather widgets, gas station location, mechanic shops and more. Hopefully the app would be developed to feed information from a meta data base that only pertains to the interests of each individual. This is what makes it truly tailorable.

ROCKSOLID: collections website - formal exploration

The following are three explorations for formal direction for my collection website about crystals I started collecting when I was 8. The collection website has grown from the required 15 objects into 24 of my favorite specimens and 9 info graphics about the rocks. 

 LOGO/ BRAND  EXPLORATION:

The idea behind rocksolid is to meld scientific cleanliness with different aesthetic approaches. The shapes either inspired by Jar and specimen labels or geode formations.


DIRECTION 1:

Direction one has the tag I mentioned previously that is inspired by apothecary jar labels and scientific labeling of specimens. I added some abstracted geode-form line drawings around the edges to fill in the padding area. Not only is the simplicity deriving from science labels but I wanted to allow the Crystals to be front and center, allowing them to get the attention they demand. After all this is a website about the collection, so why distract the viewer from the thing i find most beautiful; the rocks.

 In this direction I thought it would be a nice contrast from the cleanliness of the stark white background to add woodgrain. Its a stretch but the wood is something form within nature just as the crystal specimens are. Although I like the direction, I am still working on finding a way to render the crystals in way that allows them to stay as vibrant as before (on the white background).

 

 DIRECTION 3:

 

 These are a little messy as far as clarity of direction and cohesion but bear with me. Here I wanted to try and show all the logotypes in similar applications and spacial relationships. So in that sense I categorized them as one direction instead of having 4 or 5 to talk you through.  

CRYSTAL RENDERING STYLES: COLLECTION WEBSITE

 

 Playing around with some rendering. Right now I am thinking well lit, scientific documentation photos of the specimens. Ive started to explore some vector overlays as well as abstracted reduced vector line drawings of the rocks. Next I want to get on the light table and do some hand drawn renderings of the minerals.   

PARTICIPATORY CULTURE

WIRE FRAMES & SENARIOS

 If you wish to add notes, save an article for later, or all together rid it of your feed, select the icon that correlates. Nav bar and Square categories on the right are customizable. If john isnt interested in the travel section at all he can quickly remove it from his sections.

 On the left side there is a section for user generated streams. The constantly updating panel shows headlines linked to articles based on what your friends are viewing. whats the most popular or what is recommended based on your previous selections of news. On the right, by hovering over a section, a quick viewer of Pictures and headlines are shown. 

 As we move into the sports section, John thinks the first article is interesting. He has to know more. Just has to, so he clicks on the image

 When diving into an article, the reader now has a chance to contribute. John can save the article for later. Organize it in his "board." the board is like a personal archive of news articles and images organized based on how the reader thinks they should be. Friends can see his boards and follow them as well as read his annotations.

John wants to annotate the small paragraph so he can remember some key points. He simply highlights the text and hits the note icon. This allows him to make notes on the article and save it for himself and his friends if they wish to view it. Down in the right hand corner is Sports Now, a section that is a live feed of current sport news. So on game day, dont fret. Youll know without having a TV near by. Check the Sports Now section and view footage, live streaming, stats, scores, and comments.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE READING

10 NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS FOR DESIGNERS

"This year’s gonna be a goddamned golden age. Last year we trained. This year we fight."
                                                                              - 10 new years resolutions for designers
^^^^^preach it brother.

This article was quite interesting, inspirational even. It drives home the point that we as designers must be more than just visual people. We must be critical thinkers. Design in every aspect is just as much, if not more, about the worth of the idea as it is about the beauty of the arrangement. No more excuses, just results. 



WEB DESIGN IS 95% TYPOGRAPHY (“Webdesign is all about typography. Period”)


"Yet typography is an old school discipline that requires a lot of studying, repetitive concentrated effort and looking at printed materials. Typography in practice is not choosing fonts or making fonts, it’s about shaping text for optimal reading experience."
"Typography is not about choosing fonts."

As much as I love sifting through my type library, He has a point that I cannot argue with.


"Even though we all know that reading is what we mainly do on the web, we thought that online we could snub the rules of typography. Some said that due to different platforms, annoying resolution issues and lack of fonts there was no point to even start to care for typography. What a cheap excuse! What a severe misunderstanding of the medium."

"Explain to them what the medium is about. It’s about information. It’s not about shopping, it’s not about advertisement, it’s not linear. It’s about communication in one of its most competitive forms. Communication and not effects – that is what we should be concerned about as designers."

"Optimizing typography is optimizing readability, accessibility, usability(!), overall graphic balance."

This puts a whole new look at the web for me. Honestly the web is something that I have been avoiding as a designer, but lets get real, theres going to come a time where we cannot avoid it and that time is now.