Noisy Decent Graphics

Closed for August

My good friend Paul, who used to be a Brand Manager for a product in the Chilled Foods aisle, is trying to revive that trend where you announce on your blog when you're going to be away. I'm happy to help. As is now traditional NDG will be closed for the whole of August.

Due to the global economic downturn we won't be having a Guest Blogger this summer. Cut backs.

We will return in September refreshed and bursting with all the latest design industry gossip, in depth analysis and kerning news. Until then, keep it between the navigational beacons.

 

Bloggers Drinks - an update

I'm really sorry I'm going to have to cancel Blogging Drinks.

Actually, what I mean is that I can't make blogging drinks anymore. But that's no reason for it not to go ahead. Several people have expressed an interest. So if you'd like to organise that in the comments, feel free.

The evil banks, Tory scum and that posh twat

 

I keep noticing these Cycle Hire things. And yesterday I saw Boris cycling home. These are both good things.

This Cycle Hire scheme is a good thing. A very good thing. I know there are haterz, I know the scheme isn't perfect. I know it's sponsored by a bank (and I know you hate them) and I know it was introduced by a Tory mayor (and I know you hate them) but it's still a good thing. Not perfect. But good. It's the kind of thing you would see abroad and then come home and rave about. But it's not abroad it's in our very own London.

 

This signs are good. Not perfect, but better than not having them. They've done a decent job on the design. They make a lot more sense than most You Are wHere? maps. Likewise, to have a mayor that cycles to work is a good thing. Might be the only good thing about Boris (I know you all hate him) but I'd rather he cycled than he didn't. Just as I'd rather Barclays sponsored the blue cycle lanes than we didn't have them at all.

It's not perfect, but neither is life.

Profound, I know.

It was. We asked.

What should Newspaper Club do next?

http://blog.newspaperclub.co.uk/2010/07/15/what-would-you-like-us-to-do-next/

The worst piece of graphic design I've seen in a long time

 

How many helveticas does it take to get to the moon?

I don't know about you but my favourite measurement is the moonandback. The distance to the moon is 385,000,000,000 mm.

The size of an unkerned piece of normal cut Helvetica at 100pt is 136.23 mm.

Therefore it would take 2,826,206,643.42 helveticas to get to the moon.

Being Busy

I'm sure I've written this before but I can't find it, so here goes.

I was talking recently about being busy with a few friends. Mostly about our different strategies for coping with the crazy workloads we all have to face every now and then. Here's a few of my own very personal tips.

1. Work when you work best
I'm a morning person 100%. I could get up at 5am every day and be very happy. At the other end of the day by 10pm I'm ready for bed. I've fallen asleep in every pub and every house party I've ever been too.

So working late never works for me. Very quickly diminishing returns set in. If I have loads of work to do I go to bed early and set the alarm for 5am. And you know what? I get more done, at a quicker pace than I would have done in the evening. That's partly because of the ever approaching deadline of the day starting, but it's also because your brain is alert and you can make better decisions, faster.

2. Healthy body, healthy mind
If you're a creative a large part of your job involves making decisions. That's harder than you think. Making decisions involves a clear mind. You can't do this well if you feel tired or sluggish. Or hungover. So if I'm in a busy period I quite often stop drinking alcohol and eat loads of fruit. Simple, but it makes me feel healthier and it helps me work better.

3. Don't do everything on your to do list
A big moment came in my life about 5 years ago. I used to regularly write To Do lists for each day. I never managed to get to the bottom of the list. If there was 10 things to to I'd manage 7. But then I realised that was OK. Not everything gets done. That's life. And that was one of the most liberating experiences of my working life.

Now I write a To Do list with the most important at the top (note NOT the most urgent). They get done first. And if the stuff and the bottom doesn't get done. It doesn't get carried over. It doesn't get done. You soon find yourself putting all the silly 'nice to have' things in the bottom bit and that's like therapy, getting them all out of your head. But then you find yourself writing shorter and shorter to do lists. Which is kind of the goal.

4. Ask for help
Don't struggle away on your own. Someone in your organisation probably has the time to help. Know what your good at and what you can do well and efficiently and then delegate the rest away. If you're consistently snowed under maybe your organisation will employ someone to take the pressure off. Seriously. Ask.

5. Little and often
If I haven't done the work, I can't pull an all nighter (see above) and churn out loads of stuff. That doesn't work for me. I have to do a little and often. Little bits of projects, sketches, notes, bits on delicious, right from day one. Then before you know it the project has done itself.

And that's enough from me. Time for bed.

Racing track font

I was at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. As ever I was keeping my eye out for some interesting graphics design.

 

This font only seemed to be used on the tickets and car park stickers, but I thought it was quite interesting. I'm assuming it was hand drawn, mainly because I can't be bothered to look for it online. It's obviously been designed to resemble a motor racing track. I think it does that well. Not line crosses another, you can 'race' your finger round each 'track'.

Sure, it's a teeny bit cheesy, but it's a decent idea and it's a very had thing to pull off. It's cute and it's simple enough to read. AND READABILITY is important. It's also a nice change from the speeding lines typography and forties pastiche you normally get at motorsport events.

It's not perfect. It's not brilliant. But I like it.

The Red Arrows

They are always awesome. Sunday was no different.

Feed news

I have a friend who's a Social Media Consultant (I know, I know) and every time he blogs he posts a link on his Twitter account. I've never been a fan of this approach, and while I am on Twitter I've never posted a link to my blog up there. I prefer to just say what I'm doing. You know, in a meeting, in a queue, watching X Factor etc.

But my friend tells me I am behind the times! I should post my links! Twitter is the new RSS he cries! What about your personal brand!

Maybe he's got a point. So, I've started a Noisy Decent Graphics twitter account. http://twitter.com/NsyDcntGrphcs

Er, yes. NsyDcntGrphcs. Twitter doesn't give me enough characters for Noisy Decent Graphics so I disemvowled it. Like in the good old days. Anyway, the NDG twitter feed will automatically post links to my blog posts live-as-they-happen! So if you like to follow blogs and feeds and stuff via Twitter, you now can.

All thanks to my Social Media Consultant friend. Bless him.

I'm going to miss these when they're gone.

 

 

 

London is better with these flags, these nations.

Digital advertising explained

 

Bloggers Drinks Thursday 29th July

In the evening, somewhere out East. All welcome. The more nutters the merrier.

For Dan

 

Sports Apps

When I talked about Sports Dataviz earlier I got sent hundreds of emails telling me about sports data apps. While none of them really do dataviz there's something interesting in the dedicated sports data app. The visual language from some sports just seems to suit this fragmented digital, continuous partial attention lifestyle.

A cricket scoreboard works perfectly in that glowing rectangle.

 

Likewise, a tennis scoreboard. And that yellow type is so evocative.

   

And then there's a current one, the Tour De France. That doesn't work at all. That's slightly unfair because The Tour doesn't have the same scoreboard iconography. What's also interesting is that these apps are hugely relevant for a very short period of time, just two weeks in the case of Wimbledon.

   

That reminds me of earlier in the year when we talked about pop-up shops. Here's what I said,

"Which makes me wonder if we'll start to see big, famous brands who only have high street shops at certain times of the year. The pop-up shop concept but slightly more permanent , regular and on the busiest high streets. Borders and HMV strike me as good examples. Everyone knows that the internet is killing the high street bookshop and record shop. Borders are in administration. That's old news. But every Christmas Waterstones and Borders are always packed. So maybe we'll see brands, old brands I guess, that exist all year round but massively ramp up their high street presence at certain times of the year. Most of these businesses make all their profit in one quarter of the year anyway. Greatly reduced costs, same profit."

Rapha's previously mentioned cafe has opened specifically for The Tour and the Look Ma No Hands bike friendly cafe was doing a roaring trade thanks to today's stage.

Back to apps. Somehow the growth and ubiquitous nature of apps seems to fit the pop-up shop model. Pay £5.99 for a Tour De France app and then forget about it for 11 months of year. Then fire it up again a year later. I don't know - I'm rambling now. But there's something in all this.

 

And don't those icons look cute.

Sports Dataviz

Sports has always sprouted lots of data. (I'm reminded of DJ Stout's forthcoming baseball book.) Technology means there's now even more. Sports dataviz is going to be huge.

 

I bought this F1 iPad app the other day. Even at twenty quid it's still really good. Live tracking over the cars during a race. Click on a circle and get more info.

 

Lovely 3D interactions, live data, decent visuals. (Graphically it's not that exciting but I'm sure there is prettier stuff coming...)

We will see more of this.

 

   

Rapha Cafe

I took a little detour this morning and popped into the Rapha Cafe. I'm really glad I did, it was gorgeous. Beautiful understated, comprehensive design that you don't see that often anymore.

Those of you familiar with the Rapha brand won't be disappointed. Lovely stuff.

There's even a picture of our dear friend Patrick Syms.

Hurry up and visit. It's only temporary and closes at the end of July. More pictures on The Flickr.