Some thoughts here and there.
Okay, real talk, blogging often is hard shit. We care so much about you and your time. We don’t write posts for the sake of writing posts. If we have a passionate topic, you’ll see it here. Otherwise trust we are probably just busy making something great for the citizens of the interwebs.
In every industry there is a sub language. Words, phrases, shorthand that really only speaks to those that already get it. So here we are, designers, talking about a bunch of stuff that makes no sense to you. I want to change that. Today, let’s unpack “wireframes”. So in a nut shell, a wireframe is…
So there is a large focus on sites being fast. Google rewards sites that load quickly and meet their speed criteria. Go ahead, run your site through googles page insight tool. https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ What grade did you get? Was it under 50/100 on desktop? You won’t be alone. That’s actually pretty normal. We have had this…
We spend a lot of time working on the right font pairings in our projects. We try not to get super geeky on you, but sometimes we do want to share the process, get your feedback, or just communicate why we did something. This is a great short animation on the history of type, showing great key…
I love reading about designers and what their personal mantras are. Dieter Rams is one of the most influential industrial / product designers in our time. He made Braun a household name in the 50s and 60s by creating simple products that worked well. Design trends that are still being followed and copied today. When asked if he thinks…
Just a quick preview of a new brand we recently developed for Crate Coffee. Featuring locally roasted beans with unique blends specific to their markets. We designed the logo to have a rough, painted look, so to finish the brand implementation we used a rubber stamp on the business cards and coffee bags. It is…
As designers, we like to say inspiration can come from anything. The following video showcases just this. Mine Kafon is a project from Massoud Hassani, a designer who grew up in Kabul. Using childhood toys, he modeled a land mine detonation device. It’s fascinating to see how much like his toy the final result is.…
Just a great example of a big, giant, corporate site, having some fun. Lowes.com has a promotional banner highlighting their new paint calculator. The focus is partially on wasting less. So what better way to highlight that message than show some wasted paint. Dripping down the entire home page. I applaud their creativity and…
This was a really exciting project to work on here at factor1. Ace Hardware Phoenix is a regional site to represent the collective marketing efforts of all Phoenix metro valley stores. A total of just over 50 stores. The new website features a Do-it-yourself video archive, news, sales & promotions, seasonal tips, and a Google…
I love how a good clean site can be so simplistic and yet so aesthetically pleasing. Minimalism is hard to accomplish without seeming boring, but when done properly, the outcome is amazing. Check out these great sites that have nice color and typography choices, and a stunning minimalist layout.
We are all about learning new things here at Factor 1. We try to stay on top new design and coding trends, and we love finding new techniques to test and play with. I know we have quite the mix of regular readers here: fellow designers, other coders, and some clients that have no design…