But I probably won’t get one just yet… But I AM extremely excited about what this means for the magazine and publishing industry. There’s so much potential with this device to extend and transform the way we consume media. I’m not even sure we know how people will be using the iPad in 6 months time from now. It’s all up to the app developers!

I almost feel like I’ve has first hand access to what this will look like all week…sorta.  I’ve been working on an iPad app site for Men’s Health  Magazine for the past few days at Brunello, Photoshoping screenshots into iPad photos, sprinkling jQuery here and there and getting the site ready for todays launch. So go check it out while you are at it: http://menshealth.com/ipad.

Now I’m curious what you think of the iPad - regardless of if you will buy it or not. What impact do you think it will have on the publishing industry? On computers in general? On your media consuming habbits (if you are buying one). Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Congrats to Scarlett @ScarlettColey & Ralph @ralphsaunders! Hope you both enjoy Dribbble! Thanks to everyone who commented! Will let you know when I have more invites!

So I’ve been on Dan Cederholm’s sorta super top secret Dribbble site for a little while and now and have been enjoying it immensely! I know tweeting about sneak peaks on Twitter have probably been driving everyone nuts. But I have some good news! I have been granted the ability to draft a few players. So here the deal – post a comment with a link to your best piece of work and I have a looksie and draft those I see fit!

Let the games begin!

As you probably all know I’m an avid Twitter user. I love interacting with other designers and non designers to share and learn. But all to often Twitter turns into a sea of links and re-tweets. This in itself isnt a bad thing, but I think we (myself included) tend to forget that ACTUAL PEOPLE (for the most part) run these twitter accounts. So take a second to say hello to your twitter friends today.

Follow me on twitter @NikiBrown or send me an email and lets interact. Lets have a conversation!

In this quick tip I’ll show you how to change the case of existing text in photoshop. This can be super handy if you are working with lots of text in photoshop as I was today. If you are too lazy to watch the video the magic keyboard shortcut is shift+cmd+k with the text selected and BAM! ALL CAPS TEXT WOOO!!!

Big thanks to my twitter friends for showing me this tip! (You should follow me on twitter if you aren’t already!)

It’s been mighty quiet here for the past few weeks and some of you might wonder what is going on? Have no fear… I’ve just been insanely busy working on a bunch of top secret projects!

Portfolio Update!

A site I spent many long hours working on a few months ago at Brunello Creative has finally launched! Read more about the project in my Web Design Portfolio or view the site over at GalileanSecret.com. I’ll admit that it was a bit challanging at first to design a semi-photorealistic site. Please feel free to chime in and let me know your thoughts about the design – I’m always open to suggestions and constructive criticism!

Taking a bit of time off

Why am I taking some time off? (besides the fact that I want to make amazing hidden message banana installations…)

Watch the video below:

Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.

I’ve been blogging on a regular basis for quite a while and am starting to feel a bit burned out. I’ve been planning on taking a month or so off from blogging in order to come back at the new year with a fresh perspective. So stay tuned – I’ll be back sometime mid January with new content and hopefully a fresh outlook on design!

In the meantime you should follow me on twitter and check out Daily Design Bits!

I hope you all enjoy the holiday season and take some time to relax and reflect. I’ll see you next year!

Hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving! I finally had a chance to disconnect for a few days and relax. When I came back to internet land I noticed that I had 16 Google Wave invites in my inbox to give away.

I’d like to give away the invites to people I’ll actually talk to so if you think that you fit that bill leave a comment and i’ll pick you!

Aol rebrands. Graphic designers everywhere gnash their teeth and weep in sorrow for the unnecessary slaughtering of design principles. (ok maybe not…) Is this a rash move on AOL’s part… or branding brilliance in disguise?

Aol in Motion

First lets take a look at the brand in motion, it looks a bit strange as a series of still images.

I like the simplicity of the type of the logo, but it worries me that the dynamic and changing aspects of the brand only seem to come out via video. My first reaction to seeing the still image at the beginning of this post was WHAT THE F??? The still images of the logo look very amateur and elementary. Remember when you cracked Photoshop open for the first time? Text+image=logo…. right? I think the idea behind this branding is more clear in video format… but this is problematic since it will probably be displayed as a static image most of the time.

Lets look at some of the pros and cons of this redesign:

The pros:

It’s different: we didn’t expect this. It’s a bit off the beaten path and it grabs your attention (at least a designers attention…good or bad.)

It breaks outside the rules of traditional logo design, which could be a good thing.

The cons:

It breaks the rules of logo design. It’s not simple and easy to remember. It’s constantly changing.

It’s really different from the previous design. Good designs are often re-aligns not complete redesigns.

It does not yet appear to be a coherent identity system.

Who is responsible for this?

The new branding was designed by branding agency Wolf Olins (who seems to have a similar approach to their branding and logo…)

The new AOL brand identity is a simple, confident logotype, revealed by ever changing images. It’s one consistent logo with countless ways to reveal. Historically brand identity has been monolithic and controlling, little more than stamping a company name on a product. AOL is a 21st century media company, with an ambitious vision for the future and new focus on creativity and expression, this required the new brand identity to be open and generous, to invite conversation and collaboration, and to feel credible, but also aspirational. We’re delighted to have worked so closely with the AOL leadership team to create something bold and exciting that sets AOL apart,” said Karl Heiselman, CEO of Wolff Olins.

Read the rest of the press release over at Corp.aol.com

I see where they are going, AOL wants to shift away from the old dial up ISP days and move towards being an Internet portal much like Yahoo and Google. I think that the branding is only one part of this.

While I agree that branding can be perceived as controlling, I disagree that branding is a stamp on a products. There are lots of great brands out there that are flourishing within the bounds of their ‘identity standards’. VW, Apple, Zipcar, The City of Melbourne to name a few. These brand identities are in noway stuffy, stiff, or controlling. Its the rules within design systems that allow freedom. This design appears to be too far ‘outside the box’ to work as intended.

It will be interesting to see how far the branding system is taken when it goes live in December. I’m kind of underwhelmed by what i’ve seen so far.

What do you think?

Chime in in the comments below and let me know what you think.

First, let me start off by saying that I love technology, and I think that the Android platform is pretty cool. I’m glad to see competition in the realm of reallyfreakingcoolcellphones, but the marketing of Verizon’s Droid struck a nerve with me.

First, before you read my silly little rant, check out the website and watch the commercial.

DROIDS FLASH BASED WEBSITE

http://droiddoes.com

DROID iDON’T COMMERCIAL

DROID ADVERTISEMENT ON THE VERIZON WIRELESS WEBSITE

NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING

My first impression of the iDon’t campaign is that its negative.

The text of the iDon’t commercial:

• iDon’t have a real keyboard
• iDon’t run simultaneous apps
• iDon’t take 5 megapixel pictures
• iDon’t customize
• iDon’t run widgets
• iDon’t allow open development
• iDon’t take pictures in the dark
• iDon’t have interchangeable batteries

This commercial reminds me of all the silly and petty political smear campaigns that made me really dislike election season. I know they are trying to point out that this phone does way more than the iPhone, but its just an immature way to point it out.

While some of the “iDon’ts” are true there are other ways to customize your iPhone.  If you jailbreak your iPhone you can do 3/4ths of these things anyways…  I’m currently running my NPR app while using tweetdeck (via backgrounder) and I have completely customized the way my phone looks.

*I should also note that I’m not the biggest fan of the I’m a mac, I’m a PC Apple commercials. I much prefer the simple commercials showing the apple products (iphone, ipod etc) and a hand.

UGLY AMATEUR GRAPHICS

My next beef with the Droid campaign is the graphic elements. Does anyone else think think all the red, black and texture look amateur? My initial reaction is – hey that looks like someone followed a Photoshop tutorial and branded the entire campaign with a cheezy semi-futuristic rock/metal texture. It just looks horrible! I’m just kind of amazed and confused, and wondering how much they paid an advertising agency to design this stuff!

The website is all flash (my thoughts on all flash sites) and has an annoying sound track of effect sounds to further enforce that grungy industrial look and feel.  After navigating through a few pages I left because I found the text (light gray on dark gray texture) very hard to read not to mention that the circular navigation is horrible!

If the Droid is going after the iPhone market – you would think that they would try to learn something from Apple’s neat and clean design aesthetic. The droid phone itself is pretty neat and clean – so im not sure where they are getting the ‘grungy cool’ from. Perhaps they are going in the opposite design direction just to be different?

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Is this campaign going to be a success for Verizon?  Are you going to buy a Droid phone? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I recently found the book  ’Unuseless Japanese Inventions’ by Kenji Kawakami. You have to admire the absurdity and creativity of  some of these  inventions:  Cat dusters, grass toilet seats, high heel training wheels.  I’ve picked out some of my favorites from the book to share with you.

UMBRELLA TIE

Its a tie… and an umbrella… at the same time! As much as it rains here I should invest in this!

TRAINING WHEELS FOR HIGH HEELS

If I were to ever wear high heels… I would need these. They kind of make think of those ‘wheelie’ shoes… but for adults.

PANORAMIC HEAD CAMERA

This invention cracks me up…not only because its ridiculous… but I could actually see a tourist near MIT using this very device…

FINGER BRUSH

This one looks like a cross between a toothbrush and a thimble. Can you imagine whipping this thing out to do a post-meal brush up?

CAT DUSTER

Too lazy to do housework? Strap these dusting mits on your cat, give it some catnip and watch your house instantly be cleaned! I’m sure my cat would LOVE this! (Also see kittens in mittens)

CAMERA UMBRELLA

I have to admit that this invention is actually kind of clever.  I could use one of these for my iPhone.

BUTTER STICK

Short on time to make that toast for breakfast? Try the butter stick:  it’s kind of like a gluestick but edible… (well…some would argue that gluesticks are edible as well)

CLEAN AIR

Tired of that polluted and nasty city air? Try taking a whif of this plant and enjoy the clean air!

GRASS TOILET SEAT

Last but not least the best invention of all is the grass toilet seat… so you can can get that outdoorsy feel when you…well… have to go.

HAVE  YOU SPOTTED ANY WACKY INVENTIONS LATELY?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I had a chance to stop by the Apple Store today to check out all the new sparkling goodies that were recently added to their lineup. I’ve been a bit disappointed that they didn’t have the magic mice out for sale, but they did have them hooked-up (literally) to some of the iMacs. I had a chance to play with one for a few minutes and managed to snag some pics and video.

INITIAL THOUGHTS

The magic mouse felt nice in my hand and was much lighter than I originally thought it would be (its basically just the weight of the batteries inside + plastic.)  The mouse felt like it fit well in my hand and I should mention that I have small hands. It also has an incredibly low profile, which looks cool and felt alright, but I was standing while using the computer. I’m wondering how this would affect ergonomics over time. The two black bars on the bottom of the mouse do a decent job of stabilizing during the two finger swipe, but it took some getting used to. I was swiping too hard at first and moving the mouse. I’m not sure if I will end up using the swipe.

The feature I was most looking forward to is the 360 scroll. While using safari I noticed when I flicked my finger on the mouse the scrolling accelerated much like the iPhone. It really is a please to scroll without that stupid little ball! Overall I was pretty pleased with my 5 minute session with the Mighty Mouse and I’m glad that I purchased one!

PHOTOS (GLAM OUR SHOTS)

HAVE YOU TRIED THE MAGIC MOUSE?

User experiences are different for everyone – so I’m curious as to what you think.