IntuitiveDesigns

Interesting Links from the week:

• The Immutable Laws of Web Design and Development  -  This article is great. On every law I thought, "Oh, so so true!".
• An Interview with Blue Iris, Pantone’s Color of the Year - This one cracked me up. These guys are crazy.
• How To Be Wildly Successful And Get Everyone To Like You - I think the title is catchy enough on it’s own.
• Creating The Perfect Portfolio - Great rundown of what should go in a designer’s portfolio, for people new to the field and those of us that have been here awhile.
• The Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos - Pretty interesting to see how logos evolve with the times!

Here are a few interesting links that I enjoyed this week:

• How to build a web start-up - Part 1 -There are so many web apps starting up lately. This is a great article from Ryan Carson at Carsonified for Vitamin, the same people who have developed many apps of their own including DropSend and Amigo.
• Consulting: a Getting Started Guide - by Skellie at Anywired- Great introduction into what it takes to be a consultant.
• Are you ready for this person? - by Kurt Deutscher on the ExpressionEngine blog - Thought provoking article about how to prepare for three types of clients we don’t normally consider.
• Usability and Interface Design Books - by Alexis Brion at Smashing Magazine - Great list of the most reputed books in these subjects.

The first beta version of the new open source shopping cart, Magento was released on Monday. We took a test drive on our local Windows machine and we will say that it looks very promising. There were a few kinks getting it installed on Windows, but nothing major.

The admin panel is the nicest we’ve seen for an open source cart and it has a lot of nice functions. For example, it has a nice cms-like feature that makes it easy to create static site pages for shops that want a little content.

It also has some neat javascript effects like a slider that increases or decreases product photos and drag-and-drop attributes in the admin panel.

Overall, we think it’s a great and easy to use solution out of the box. We look forward to test-driving it more on client sites when they release the stable version in early 2008.

The Designed Tree mentioned us in their blog. It’s a really nice site that highlights good design. Thanks. We are truly flattered!

YouTube is one of the most popular web sites today, which is mostly known for it’s extensive catalogue of videos posted by users featuring music and other fun stuff. But it’s not just about that. We would like to call the attention of how video can be also an interesting tool for designers and illustrators to showcase their own work. Some designers are already using video to create their own portfolios or show themselves working in real time. I’ve been having a look at YouTube, and these are some of my recommendations on design and illustration videos from the site. I have also featured a short movie showing H.R. Giger at work in his own studio, a must for everyone into sci-fi and fantasy illustration.

H.R. Giger
The renowned sci-fi illustrator talking about his work at his workshop.

Sergi Armengou
Sergi Armengou’s illustration book

Shawn Salgado
Shawn Salgado’s illustration portfolio movie 2006

Shaneglines.net
Portfolio movie of animation designer and illustrator Shane Glines.

Commission Athlon 2006
Drawing an illustration for the camera.

Designing
Shirt designing in illustrator.

Martin Tazl making a scribble in his agency.
A look inside the creative agency from Germany, Tazlthielen Kommunikation GmbH, when Martin Tazl is doing a scribble for a visual campaign.