I’m a bit of a Sci-Fi buff and not surprisingly, after seeing Avatar today I thought the movie was excellent. The special effects are amazing, as is the 3D viewing technology which is becoming more common place in new movies. However…

As you’ve all no doubt seen by now, and to the bewilderment of designers the logotype for Avatar is papyrus. Even stranger is the choice to use it for the movies sub titles, which play a significant role throughout the film. I can’t think of anything worse for a paragraph of copy than papyrus.

For such technically ambitious effects and what will no doubt go on to be an extremely successful film, it seems bizarre to use the most overused font in history.

I understand the selection was to tie in with the ancient/tribal nature of the films characters, but surely there was something, anything else out there that would have done the job.

I mean, come on…

Papyrus logotype: 1/10, Papyrus subtitles: -100/10.

With 2010 on the horizon, Pantone have again awarded their annual colour of the year. This years winner, Turquoise. A color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky.

Read on for annual winners from years gone by.

2009, Mimosa. The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance.

2008, Blue Iris. A mix of blue and purple that suggests dependability and magic. Continue reading...

There are all manner of blogs. Some promoting a business, with successful advertising some blogs are businesses, and some are simply thoughts poured out onto pages.

It wouldn’t be the first time someone had started a blog with all the enthusiasm in the world, only for it to fade away in the proceeding weeks or months. Without somewhat regular new posts a blog is of little use, and regular posts require dedication. So where do you find the energy?

I was asked the other day how I manage to keep myself going, and the answer is simple. I enjoy it.

My father often said to me, If you do something you love, you never work a day in your life, and it couldn’t be more true. Even if my blog never brought me a cent, I think I’d still find it fulfilling to see it grow.

What is your blog?

Just another day at work, or a profitable past time?

A bit of a multicultural post today, a collection of logos from various countries around the work. It’s not so much about whether the logos are good or bad ( though many are good ) but just a glimpse at the styles of design.

First country, and representing my home team ( heritage wise… ) Johnnie Walker, Scotland. Good logo and scotch.

The Chipotle restaurant chain. Mexican cuisine ( though the restaurants themselves are located across the U.S ).

The city of Copenhagen, Denmark. On a related note, another good thing to come out of Copenhagen, the best ice-cream ever. Continue reading...

So you web design is finished, you’ve got pages and pages of quality, with traffic and blog comments galore. If your anything like me, all that’s left to do now is obsess over every infinitesimal detail imaginable to improve your perfectly fine website.

If that sounds like you, you’ll probably be interested in minifying ( See, now the picture of the Morris Mini makes sense… ) your css/code.

The purpose of minifying your site is cut down unnecessary bandwidth usage/load times. The reduction in file size is usually around 20% – 40% which for a 10kb style sheet obviously isn’t a lot, but hey, every bit counts, especially for high traffic sites. Continue reading...