102-Week 02: Pocket Profiles

Lecture Recap

This week we learned about the printing press and how revolutionary it was at the time. It allowed information to be printed much faster than ever before and spread across the western world.

Typography: Anatomy of a Letter - YouTube

We also learned that there is actually an anatomy to typography and how it is constructed. We looked at terms such as; serif or sans serif, the letter spacing and x-heights.

 

 

Learning the origins of type can help us when designing in the modern day. It can be important to know how type was first constructed to know why certain styles were used and created. Such as the Times new Roman font used for newspapers to be easily read and legible.


Pocket Profiles- Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen was born in Copenhagen in Denmark and holds a PHD in Human-computer interaction. He co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group which he co-founded with Dr. Donald A. Norman -who was the former Vice President of research at Apple. Nielsen established the ‘discount usability engineering’ movement, this allowed for an inexpensive and faster improvements of UI. Nielsen invented several usability methods and holds 79 US patents focussed mainly on making the internet easier to use, like improving heuristics for a more efficient way to navigate the web.

Jakob Nielsen is highly respected, not only in his own field but around the world. He has been credited for being the ‘smartest person on the web’ by ZDNET AnchorDesk and ‘the world’s leading expert on user-friendly design’ by the Stuttgarter Zeitung German paper. Nielsen is also been recognised with awards as in June 2000, Dr. Nielsen was inducted into the Scandinavian Interactive Media Hall of Fame and in April 2006 he was inducted into the ACM Computer-Human Interaction Academy.

Nielsen has made several speeches and presentations about his work such as a ‘Is UX getting Better or Worse’ recorded in 2017 in Copenhagen.

 

 

He has also published many books such as ‘Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency’- reprinted in 2002. In this book Jakob Nielsen talks about the core principles of interface consistency is as valuable as ever. In it, Nielsen explains the cost-effectiveness in interface consistency around the web, if businesses and organisations promote this consistency and put effort into doing so it could be very beneficial for them. Not only can consistency cause cost benefits but it can also avoid the risks that varying websites can cause.


Jon Hicks

Jon Hicks is in English designer with his own design studio- Hicksdesign, a partnership between Jon and his wife. His studio has designed globally since 2002 with the base in Oxfordshire. Together, they cover a wide range specialities from prints to screen and web design work, they are mostly known for branding and iconography.

One of his most famous designs was the firework logo he created after only opening Hicksdesign a year earlier.  Jon Hicks also designed the MailChimp Logo. He describes the process of this logo as ‘fun and came together really quickly’ https://affinityspotlight.com/article/design-icon-jon-hicks/ – one sketch and then development of the final mascot.

 

Jon would describe himself as a Graphic Designer as it describes most of what he does and subject area, however he enjoys working with more physical mediums from time to time such as; ink and clay.

The work Hicksdesign normally focuses on Web/Product Design, Brand Identity, Iconography and Printing work. For web design Jon Hicks cReatesw wireframes and prototypes for the final design but he also develops these wireframes using css and Figma. I find it interesting that professionals also use Figma, this helps me have more faith in what I can design- that it possible to be industry standard using these free websites.

Hicks thinks that refining logos can help brand keep up to date and stay relevant and effective and through iconography they have worked with Skype, Spotify and Dyson. Hicks has described that his work with Spotify has been a highlight for him, as it combined his love for icons and music. Part of his project was to design logos for the genres within Spotify- in which he chose different instruments for different styles. Unfortunately because of Spotify’s need to be constantly up to date and modern some of his designs have been replaced. However Jon Hicks still loves seeing what he created every time he opens the app. This is something I enjoyed reading as I realised that people who have been in the field of design for years still get excited and motivated for their projects.


Tim Brown

Tim Brown is a designer, author and speaker that lives in Hudson Valley, New York. Tim Brown special interest is in typography from 2003. Brown became Head of Typography at Adobe, his job includes; organising fonts so that they’re quick and easy to find for users and advises partners.

Brown wrote a book called ‘Flexible Typesetting’ about how to make websites and apps look better and the changing world of web typography. Tobias Frere-Jones- creator of the Frere-Jones Type said this about the book, ‘Tim Brown explains what’s important in setting type for the web….shows us techniques to make sites clearer and more successful’.  https://abookapart.com/products/flexible-typesetting 

The projects Tim Brown has created includes; launching Typekit MArketplace and Adobe Max in November 2016 and speaking on  variety of topics events such as ‘Typesetting tools’ in Atlanta and a virtual seminar on ‘Typesetting body text’.

Besides his design career, Tim Brown also volunteers as a firefighter. He says it was never an intention of his to be a firefighter from a young age but in 2014, he changed his mind. The assistant chief of the fire dept helped him on a very snowy day in January and after the chief had finished plowing his driveway, he asked for an application. Over time he was given a pager and Brown learned that most calls are not fire related- usually floods and fallen trees. Tim Brown now gets a lot of satisfaction from feeling he’s helping his community keep safe and prepared, this thought-provoking as it helps me realise that designers have other passions and lifestyles outside of design and that creates a healthy balance.

 

 

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