A Little Change Is Good
General Design, Graphic Design
With creative advertising and a good organization to back it, a few coins can add up to a lot of money. Take a look at how some of these advertisements have helped to bring change.
July 7, 2011
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April 22, 2011
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Logo Design: At First Glance
General Design, Graphic DesignLogos are a big deal, especially because they are often the first image your audience will see — that one chance to make your mark and grab their attention. These well-designed logos are great examples of capturing the essence of a business’s work and creating something that speaks volumes at a glance.
April 8, 2011
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Designing With Numbers
General Design, Innovators & Creators, Product Design, Product InnovationHave you ever wondered why the length of a CD is 74 minutes? Or why a snooze alarm is 9 minutes? Or why a text message is 140 characters? Here are the stories behind the numbers:
When Sony was designing an audio disc, the longest version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was their point of reference. The slowest known version of Beethoven’s Ninth, at 74 minutes, was recorded in 1951 by the orchestra of the Bayreuther Festspiele — this is why you are limited to only 74 minutes on a CD.
When the snooze alarm was invented, clocks relied on gears. The engineers had to choose between 9 plus minutes or 10 plus minutes for the extra time for people to sleep. Due to gear configurations the engineers opted for 9 minutes. Even today, non-reliant on gears, a digital clock’s snooze is set at 9 minutes.
When developing a universal messaging format in the 1980’s, a committee of programmers considered two convincing facts. One, postcards often contained fewer than 150 characters and, two, Telex (a telegraphy messaging system for business professionals) contained about the same amount of characters. From that time forward, 160 characters were the character limitations for SMS.
April 6, 2011
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Practical Design: Rubber Band, meet Hook
General Design, Product Design, Product Innovation, Upcoming Inventions
This elastic strapping with an attached hook makes hanging, bundling and securing easier. As demonstrated on a yoga mat, a bunch of bananas and markers in the pictures above, these universal straps have endless possibilities.
