How to Design a Logo

Want to know how to design a logo like a professional and have all the resources you need in just one post? Then this is the post for you… Learn professional logo design in just 5 steps!

1. Learn What A Logo Is & What It Represents

Before you design a logo, you must understand what a logo is, what it represents and what it is supposed to do. A logo is not just a mark - a logo reflects a business’s commercial brand via the use of shape, fonts, colour, and / or images.

A logo is for inspiring trust, recognition and admiration for a company or product and it is our job as designers to create a logo that will do its job.

One must know what a logo is before continuing.

For further Reading on what is a logo check out Wikipedia’s Definition.

2. Know The Rules & Principles Of Logo Design

Now that you know what a logo is supposed to do, and what it should represent you now must learn about what makes a great logo aka; the basic rules and principles of logo design.

1. A logo must be describable
2. A logo must be memorable
3. A logo must be effective without colour
4. A logo must be scalable i.e. effective when just an inch in size

For Further reading on the rules and principles of great logo design I highly recommend to read the logo design tips from Logo Factory before continuing and also the article Why logo design does not cost $5.00.

3. Learn Off Other’s Successes & Mistakes

Successful Logos

Now you know what the rules of logo design are, you can distinguish the difference between a good and a bad logo… By knowing what other logos have succeeded and why they have succeeded gives a great insight into what makes a good logo.

For example, lets look at the classic Nike Swoosh. This logo was created by Caroline Davidson in 1971 for only $35 yet it still a strong, memorable logo, effective without colour and easily scalable. It is simple, fluid and fast and represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek Goddess of victory, Nike - something perfect for a sporting apparel business. Nike is just one of many great logos, think about other famous brands that you know about and check out their logos - what makes them successful?

For more quality, lesser known logos I recommend checking out LogoPond or going to your local book store or library and looking at a logo book.

The Not So Successful Logos

We can also learn off logos that have not been as successful such as the ones in the above picture. Some more very bad logos can be seen in the post ‘Is Your Design Phallic? As seen in that post, some logos can depict things that may have not always be noticeable to the designer (as in the middle logo above) or they could just be plain bad design, as in the logo to the right.

4. Establish Your Own Logo Design Process

Now that we know what a logo is, and what the principles and rules of logo design are and what makes a successful logo we can now finally begin the design process. This it hardest part of the 5 steps and is its own topic in itself - Each persons logo design process is different and experience usually is the key factor in creating your own logo design process however check out The Secret Logo Design Process Of Top Logo Designers for a better idea.

In short, a logo design process usually consists of

1. The Design Brief
2. Research & Brainstorming
3. Sketching
4. Prototyping & Conceptualising (See Step 5)
5. Send To Client For Review
6. Revise & Add Finishing Touches
7. Supply Files To Client and Give Customer Service

If you ever get stuck before or during your design process check out this great article on How To Boost Your Creativity.

5. Learn The Software & Complete The Logo

After you have got your design process sorted out, it is usually a good time to begin mastering your software but remember you can’t design a logo by just hopping straight onto the computer… brainstorm and sketch first.

After you have got your initial ideas and sketches from brainstorming you can then usually jump onto the computer to start digitising your logo. After you have got a great concept(s) digitised you can send it to your client, get revisions, and eventually complete the logo and thus, you have successfully created a professional logo.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions on how to create a professional logo?

Daifuku

Daifuku is a kind of Japanese mochi cakes. Serve daifuku with hot green tea. You can make various daifuku, changing the filling. This is a recipe to make basic daifuku with anko filling.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup shiratama-ko (glutinous rice flour)
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 2/3 cup water
* For filling
* 2/3 cup water & 1 cup sugar & 1/2 cup dried anko powder, or 1 1/4 cup premade anko
* katakuriko (porato starch) for dusting

Preparation:
Heat 2/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a small pot. Add 1/4 cup of anko powder and stir well. Cool the anko filling. Make 12 small anko balls and set aside. Put water and sugar in a heat-resistant bowl and mix well. Add shiratama-ko flour in the bowl and mix well. Put the bowl in microwave and heat the dough for two minutes. Stir the dough. Heat the dough in microwave until the dough inflates. Stir the mochi quickly. Dust a flat pan with some katakuri-ko starch. Also, dust hands with some katakuri-ko. Remove the hot mochi from the bowl to the pan by hands. Dust hands with more katakuri-ko starch and divide the mochi into 12 pieces by hands. The mochi is hot and sticky, so be careful not to burn your hands. Make 12 flat and round mochi. Put a piece of anko filling on a mochi and wrap the anko by stretching mochi. Rounds the daifuku. Repeat the process to make daifuku cakes.

Inspirations from "Self Portrait

Stuart Whitton

Location Wales
Job Freelance illustrator
Contact www.stuartwhitton.blogspot.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

“I’m influenced by a number of aspects of design and art,” says Stuart. “As a result, I try to build a visually appealing relationship between fashionably ethereal illustrations of people, objects and typographical elements.”

Ironically, it was his BA Hons course in Graphic Design at the West Wales School of the Arts that convinced Stuart that he was, in fact, more interested in illustration. “My passion for [illustration] and the use of traditional methods made me realise that my admiration for the imagery derives from the personal quality that it possesses.”

Stuart’s image creation process involves the use of pencils, Photoshop, Illustrator, abstract shapes, patterns and generally a limited colour palette to accent particular areas. “I use careful discretion concerning the amount of detail in my work,” he adds. “This is often combined with a degree of ambiguity to achieve a distinctly bold but elegant appearance.”

Self Portrait “This piece contains three pencil sketches of myself,” says Stuart of this interesting self-study. “The two that depict my face are the same image, only shown at different stages of the illustration. I wanted to create more than a traditional portrait, therefore I used Photoshop to cut a section out of the finished sketch and then arranged the other portraits so that certain areas could flow ambiguously into each other. I think this image is a good representation of not only my physical appearance but also my personality and my influences, which can be identified even in the smallest details."

Forbidden Color Combinations?

Color theorists and designers in fashion or computer graphics have coined phrases based around what colors shouldn't go together. A recent forum post, Red and Green Should Not Be Seen? discusses two of the sayings ("Red and Green Should Not Be Seen" and "Blue and Green Should Never Be Seen Without Something in Between"), and some lovers have even responded in protest, showing how there is no 'wrong' in love. Here are some palettes and applications of the forbidden colors that really work.

Oddly, these color rules work under specific contexts, which follow 'clashing' colors. Sure, red flowers on green leaves make perfect sense, and can be beautiful, but red text on a green background doesn't always work, so there is some weight to the statements. Of course, that weight really shouldn't be the end-all. Other color combinations that are said to not work are as follows:

What I've found to be true about what's "right" and "wrong" is that a good general rule, opposed to gospel. Because colors are flexible, it follows that these rules don't always apply. What it really seems to come down to is using colors correctly. Using colors that 'clash' properly can give a wonderful contrast. In the world of color, I've found that there's no such thing as 'no' in the world of color.

Red and Green Seen

Blue and Green Seen

CSS Gradient Text Effect

Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash). All you need is an empty tag in the heading and apply the background image overlay using the CSS position:absolute property. This trick has been tested on most browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even Internet Explorer 6. Continue to read this article to find out how.

Benefits

* This is pure CSS trick, no Javascript or Flash. It works on most browsers including IE6 (PNG hack required).
* It is perfect for designing headings. You don’t have to render each heading with Photoshop. This will save you time and bandwidth.
* You can use on any web fonts and the font size remains scalable.

How does this work?

The trick is very simple. Basically we are just adding a 1px gradient PNG (with alpha transparency) over the text.

The HTML markups


CSS Gradient Text

The CSS

The key point here is: h1 { position: relative } and h1 span { position: absolute }
h1 {
font: bold 330%/100% "Lucida Grande";
position: relative;
color: #464646;
}
h1 span {
background: url(gradient.png) repeat-x;
position: absolute;
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 31px;
}

Interview of Plinko Artist-Mark Wasserman

Max · Where did you study? How Long have you been in the biz?

Mark · I went to college at UC Santa Cruz, a public university about 75 miles south of San Francisco. They have a good design program, but it never even occurred to me to take a course. I graduated with a degree in Sociology.

My father was a Professor of Computer Science, so I had grown up with all sorts of computers, early modems, etc around the house from an early age, and I pretty much dismissed all of it. There was the fun novelty of sending an international email that would take about 8 hours to arrive, but it really held little interest for me. Still, even though I wasn't always paying attention, I guess some of that early computing knowledge stuck with me.
In college, the club/rave scene began really picking up in the U.S., and I got together with a few partners to stage some events. As I became immersed in that scene, I started noticing this whole world of club flyers and graphics that hadn't really been around before. At the same time, Raygun and a lot of the 4AD artwork was coming out. I already had a Mac, along with a few basic design applications. I went out and got books by David Carson and Neville Brody, and literally copied their designs to learn how they had done what they did.

As I started understanding the tools a bit better, I went back to school to the Multimedia program at San Francisco State. I took about a year's worth of classes there, enough to make me feel comfortable working on both print and web projects, and then started working professionally as a graphic designer at c|net — that was around 9 years ago. Actually, the first Plinko site was just done in order to get hired as a designer somewhere.

My first design job was at c|net, where I stayed for about a year. I truly did learn more there in the first 2 weeks than my entire stint at San Francisco State. It was a really vibrant, exciting place at the time, and my first boss was a former art director at the New York Times. I was lucky enough to pick up a lot of the education I'd missed from not going to a proper art/design school from her. Once she left c|net, I quit within a month or so. Soon after, I convinced my then-girlfriend Irene Ng to quit her design job and join forces as Plinko. That was back in 1997, and we eventually got married in 2002.

Max · What kind of artist/designer would you call yourself?

Mark · As much as I'd love to be called an artist, I definitely lean more towards the designer side. We did recently have our first gallery "show"-- it was 50% prints, and 50% photography, so I'd like to step out in that direction more.

I'd like to think of ourselves as versatile. There's amazing designers who I really admire that put their stamp on everything, but we've never really been about that. Some people have said there's a "Plinko look" but I don't really see it. I get quite bored rather easily, so trying out new styles and strategies is the best way for me to keep things interesting. Plus, we're always working with different clients, and I don't want them to feel as though we're bullying them into making their project look a certain way.

Max · What kind of projects interest you the most?

Mark · Honestly, I would probably give a different answer next week, because these things just change so quickly. At the moment, I'm really enjoying working on projects where there's an element of humor. Something where either the client gives us the freedom to make it funny, which I think is a real rarity these days. People are so concerned with needing it to either be "cool" or "important", and I don't think either of those leave much room for humor.

The most obvious example of our current projects has been designing the "Haggis-On-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance" books, where we get to create page after page of really graphically stylized work that's just absurd.

On the Web side, I've become really revitalized over the past year as the promise of convergence really seems to be happening. There's just so many nifty Web apps and sites popping up all over the place. I think it's an incredibly exciting time to be a designer.


LINKS
www.plinko.com

BOOK
Rethink Redesign Reconstruct

Design Critique of the Chicago 2016 Olympics logo

Flame
It's said that the skyline seen in the olympic flame represents how Chicago rose out of the ashes of a fire. That's really cool. They did a very fine job of making it look like a flame first, and our skyline second. When I first saw this logo, I totally thought it was a flame, and THEN I saw our skyline. Great effect. However, does it disturb anyone that when you really look at this flame and the building that it's kinda ghost-like? Or that our city is make of flames? Ah well, you can't be that literal with it, because it's got a fantastic metaphor about our city's history.

Handle
The blue and green in the handle are supposed represent the lake and green parks. That is one thing that people around the world should remember about chicago--our fantastic unencumbered lakeshore. It was a great part of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago in 1909. in Personally, I think the green really represents how sustainable chicago is).

Pencil marks
The entire logo is composed of pencil-like sketch marks, which show action and energy. It also shows the real grit of Chicago. We're not some slick city. We play it real. However, the sketchy style is reminiscent of many logos from the 1980s, but hey, this is the logo for an event 10 years from now, maybe that sort of style will come back around and be back in by then.
Actually, I wouldn't mind this style coming back in, because it would really help erik's and my pencil rubbing cause.

Font
I'm not sure what the font is. My first guesses were Avenir, Frutiger, and Vectora; however, they aren't quite it. If anyone knows the name of the font used, please leave the font name in the comments below. At any rate, it's a nice clean font. I'm thankful that the font Optima (found in parts of the CTA underground stations) was not used here.

Reproducibility
It appears that this logo is a raster file, but lately i've been amazed by some of the effects vector art has been able to achieve. Maybe this was created with individual vector lines, which would have helped them fine tune the exact look of the logo.

Conclusion
Chicago is the city that works. We have a Mayor that totally gets things done. This IS our time. It's time to live that same Chicago pride that SHOCKED THE WORLD with the 1893 World's Fair. Daniel Burnham the legendary city planner said a century ago, "Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood." That IS Chicago. We have the vision. We have the blood. We have the sweat. We should have the Olympics.

This is a fine logo that should make the city of Chicago proud. Many years from now we will look back on this logo with happy nostalgia. This fire will continue onward to the future to ignite the Olympic games in the Windy City.

Making an Icon from Sketch

This is actually not some tutorials but just the process of how Io make an icon after the skecth.

Below is a 5 min screencast and the actual time to make this icon after sketch was about 25 minutes(Check out the full length verions on Vimeo).

A cover that’s beautiful but keeps us awake

Cover by Misha Van Tol
Midnight. Pillow. Bedside. Slumberous words. Soft, comfy linen in calm, neutral colors. What could be more sleep inducing? Even the author’s name is, well, gray. But there are some culprits here that mess up the somnolent mood. One is the word “tales,” which suggests intrigue, mystery, suspense, especially since it involves a bed—at midnight. Another is the pillow’s rakish angle, which is extremely active and suggestive, too, in a Hitchcock kind of way. And Mr. Graye? His bland countenance is betrayed by that rogue, ending e, which suggests, if not an exotic lineage, at least a British one, á la Sherlock Holmes.

Watch those lines
The pillow’s not moving, but your eye sure is! All lines create motion. Angled lines create fast motion, which is great for skateboarding but not for sleeping. It does, however, bring up a useful technique . . .

Angles are active . . .

To generate tension, followed by excitement, all you have to do is make an angle. It’s unsteady — will it tip? — and all those triangles create converging lines, which move the eye rapidly from wide to narrow. Need more excitement? Add more angles!

Neutral colors
Neutral palette is all soft edges and quiet colors, beautiful without being arousing. An A for this part. Watch those lines Angles are active Neutral colors

Web Design Experience

Frames Vs Tables
Some people like to use frames on their sites. I would recommend you avoid them if you can ... and you probably can.
Frames can be useful on occasion but "the pain is greater than the gain". Too many people complain of problems with frames than you can afford to ignore. So if you insist on using them, you'll need to create an alternative no-frames set of pages for these users. Honestly ...
... it's just not worth the trouble!
As If that wasn't enough reason, many search engine spiders also encounter difficulties with frames.
This means you'll either have to spend additional time learning how to overcome these shortcomings or be doomed to low search rankings. Convinced?
I hope so - for your sake!
In most of the situations in which you might feel you need to use frames you can usually use tables equally effectively. If not on their own, then in conjunction with SSI - Server Side Includes - which also allow you to write separate pages for inclusion in another 'main' page.
The left column navigation bar, for example, is one area that it may seem appealing to place in it's own frame. The content remains the same on every page and should you need to change it, you can effect a global change just by altering a single file.
What many people don't realize that you can achieve almost the same result by using an SSI callout in a table cell within the page. This will reference another file on the server which will be written into this location when called. To browsers and search engine spiders alike the page appears as a normal web page and doesn't give rise to any of the problems associated with the use of frames.
The Long Wait!
Whilst we're on the subject of tables...
... don't make the same mistake I did when first using them!
Tables are great for page layout - you can put things just where you want them to appear on the page. So I made one big table for the whole page, split it up into various rows and columns, then put (nested) other tables inside these and in some places yet smaller ones inside them ...
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Those of you that are quietly chuckling can stop now, thank you! Don't pretend you've never made the same mistake!
Where was I ...?
Oh yes ... tables. Now the thing with tables is that the browser downloads all the contents of the table BEFORE it actually draws anything on the screen. This includes the contents of any nested tables. So what did that mean for my beautiful page?
It took DAYS to download!
Actually, it didn't really take that much longer, but it *seemed* like it did. The page remained completely blank until the browser had downloaded every single component and then suddenly flung them all onto the page at once! Leaving your visitors staring at a blank page for ages like this is not a good way to keep them on your site!
As ever, learn from your mistakes - or my mistakes! - and split your page up into several separate tables. Keep the whole lot as simple as possible and try to avoid nesting more than one layer of tables inside another. Browsers also take longer to draw tables if you don't specify the sizes. This is because the browser has to calculate how big the table needs to be to fit in all the contents.
You can also employ tables to add color to a page in preference to slow loading graphics. Or to effectively draw attention to text placed in a colored box on the page.
Tidy and Businesslike
Forget about loud colors, blinking or scrolling text, fancy animated graphics ...
... anything that distracts the eye.
Your visitor needs to concentrate on your text if you want to get them to 'bite'. Compare your site to it's offline 'brick and mortar' equivalent.
Would you paint that bright yellow and deck it out with flashing lights?
... 'Nuff said!
Keep your pages clean and well organized. People must be able to find things easily.
Imagine calling into a supermarket in a strange town to buy a box of tissues. You're in a hurry. To your dismay you find that none of the isles are labelled and you are forced to walk all over the store to find what you want.
How annoyed and fed up would you feel?
Sure, you'd still buy ... but only because of the hassle involved in leaving the store and going to another. Online this is as easy as ...
... click ... "I'm outta here!"
Actually, when you go to a supermarket you'll normally find that everything's neatly labelled and tidily displayed in rows with signs above them... build your online store along the same lines.
Apply what I call 'the three clicks rule'... make sure your visitor can find whatever they're looking for within three clicks. If not you run the risk of them becoming frustrated and leaving.

Extending Card-Sorting Techniques to Inform the Design of Web Site Hierarchies

When developing hierarchies for information-rich Web sites, designers and usability researchers often turn to card sorting for help in making design decisions. Card sorting offers a systematic and statistically significant process for answering questions about hierarchy design. However, those of us who have run card sorts know there is an art to conducting successful card sort studies, and there are many variables that can affect the usefulness of results. In this column, I’ll discuss the challenges and limitations of card sorting and review alternative and complementary techniques that designers can leverage when developing an information hierarchy for a large-scale Web site.

Challenges of Card Sorting

Part of the appeal of card sorting today is that researchers have the option of conducting studies either online or in person. When using an online tool, large numbers of participants can complete the exercise, lending additional statistical weight to the findings. In some organizations, the large sample size and statistical basis of online card sorting is helpful in dealing with decision makers. In-person card sorts let researchers interact with participants and ask probing questions to determine their organizational strategies, as well as other follow-up questions. A number of resources are available online that provide detailed steps on running and analyzing studies in both contexts.
Sounds easy, right? Just load your content into a card sort application or create actual cards, have participants complete the exercise, and the right organization for your site will be revealed! Unfortunately, it is not usually quite that easy. As Sam Ng wrote in an article on UXmatters, there are a number of issues to consider when conducting a study, from the timing of a card sort to setting proper expectations with stakeholders. Two of the points Sam mentioned in his article ring true and concur with my experience:
Run multiple studies. Designers can expect participants to sort a maximum of 80–100 cards during any one study. For sites with a large volume of content—such as intranets, retail stores, or research portals—such a limited number of cards may not accurately reflect the full breadth of content on the site. For such a site, you’ll need multiple studies to understand each individual level or section of the site. Running multiple studies adds significantly to the time and effort completing the process requires, and you should account for this when planning. Count on doing some subjective analysis. Although you can apply statistical methods to results, you’ll still need a certain level of subjective analysis to interpret the intent of card sort participants, as well as the consequences of content relationships. As a result of this necessary subjectivity, designers may have different interpretations of the same results, depending on their depth of domain knowledge and previous experience with the content. User researchers have proposed several analysis templates, involving spreadsheets and visualizations in place of dendrograms, but their analysis still involves a level of subjectivity. In addition to the points Sam Ng raised, I’ve found some other challenges to conducting successful card sort studies.
selecting and naming cards—Creating the cards for an online sort is very difficult in some domains. For physical objects, the process is easier. Choosing objects that have universally recognized names—and, potentially, using images—helps ensure respondents will understand the cards. But on an informational Web site, complex pieces of content are more difficult to describe, so you must make significant effort to ensure respondents will interpret the names of cards consistently, without introducing bias to the groupings participants will create. labeling groups—One of the most important elements of a site hierarchy is the labeling for each category or menu item. While open card sorting can provide insights to users’ view of content relationships, designers should not necessarily expect open card sorting to provide useful solutions for the names or labels of the resulting content groups. During a card-sorting exercise, participants give names to the groups they create, but each participant may create groups of varying sizes, with different intents. As a result, looking for trends among group names from different participants is difficult and may not yield helpful insights. While closed card sorting lets you test group labels, you can test only one set of labels at a time, and it does not allow any interplay between the labels for multiple levels of the hierarchy.

Paper Sculpture

Paper sculpture, sometimes referred to as origami or decoupage, is a highly versatile and adaptive medium. It is very satisfying to take a flat piece of paper and, with a simple cut or fold, transform it into 3D illustrations of people, animals, buildings, landscapes or even graphs and diagrams. As we can tell, paper sculpture has always been a passion of the artist, Gail Armstrong.

Golden Rotio

In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is a mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887.
At least since the Renaissance, many artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio—especially in the form of the golden rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio—believing this proportion to be aesthetically pleasing. Mathematicians have studied the golden ratio because of its unique and interesting properties.
Beginning in the Renaissance, a body of literature on the aesthetics of the golden ratio has developed. As a result, architects, artists, book designers, and others have been encouraged to use the golden ratio in the dimensional relationships of their works.
The first and most influential of these was De Divina Proportione by Luca Pacioli, a three-volume work published in 1509. Pacioli, a Franciscan friar, was known mostly as a mathematician, but he was also trained and keenly interested in art. De Divina Proportione explored the mathematics of the golden ratio. Though it is often said that Pacioli advocated the golden ratio's application to yield pleasing, harmonious proportions, Livio points out that that interpretation has been traced to an error in 1799, and that Pacioli actually advocated the Vitruvian system of rational proportions. Pacioli also saw Catholic religious significance in the ratio, which led to his work's title. Containing illustrations of regular solids by Leonardo Da Vinci, Pacioli's longtime friend and collaborator, De Divina Proportione was a major influence on generations of artists and architects alike.

Dorayaki--Doraemon's Favourite Dessert

Dorayaki (どら焼き, どらやき, 銅鑼焼き, ドラ焼き, Dorayaki) is a type of Japanese confection which consists of two small pancake-like patties made from kasutera wrapped around a filling of sweet red bean paste.It originally only had one layer, and the current shape was invented in 1914 by the Ueno Usagiya.In Japanese, dora means "gong", and this is probably the origin of the name of the sweet.The famous Japanese anime cat robot character Doraemon likes to eat dorayaki very much. This is a kind of punning, though his name comes not from "dorayaki" but from the word "doraneko" (stray cat.) The dorayaki was a plot device several times throughout the series. In Japan, a company sells a limited version of dorayaki called Doraemon Dorayaki every year from March to September.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp water
1 cup flour, sifted
3/4 lb anko (sweet azuki beans)
*vegetable oil for frying
Preparation:Put eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk very well. Dissolve baking soda in water. Add the water in the egg mixture. Add sifted flour in the egg mixture gradually. Heat a skillet or hot plate and lightly oil it. Pour a scoop of the batter into the skillet and make a small pancake. (*about 4 inches in diameter.) Turn over when bubbles appear on the surface. Repeat this process to make 8-10 pancakes. Cool the pancakes. Make pairs of pancakes and put a scoop of anko sweet beansbetween them. *Makes 4 or 5 dorayaki cakes.

Typetester

An increadibly useful and easy-to-useonline tool for comparing the look of different fonts and stylings on screen.

Marko Dugonjić's gives you instant previews of how a text of your choice would look on screen set in a certain font and size. It offers full control of the font styling, including the background colour, with the choice of displaying either fonts from your own system or standard system fonts for Windows, Mac or both. The interface offers instant comparisons of up to 3 different styling options side by side, and once you've got what you want, it even lets you generate a ready-to-use CSS style based on your selected settings, saving you from having to recreate the style before you can use it. Simply excellent.

Funny Fruit&Vege Ads

Apple MacBook Event on Oct 14

Yesterday's new iPods were lovely and all, but if you're like me, you wanted something more. Like some notebooks. Not to worry, Daring Fireball's John Gruber says according to the standard "sources familiar with Apple's hardware plans" that its "Let's MacBook" event will happen on Oct. 14.

While he doesn't get specific what the new hardware will be, the heavily favored are new MacBooks clad in aluminum (peace out white), and new MacBook Pros, both long overdue for an overhaul. Also likely is a gut refresh of the MacBook Air, with a faster processor, and as MacRumors points out, the iPod classic's new 120GB HDD is the same kind used in the Air.
An October event also matches up with the date floated for the most pipe dreamy of all MacBook rumors, a MacBook Touch, and Apple's recent warning to retailers to stock up on current inventory. What are you hoping for?

My Dream Island - Kani

Kani is quite a unique resort. While you approach the resort on board the transfer boat which ferries you from the airport you will notice the dense vegetation. Buildings virtually cannot be seen. Then you walk along the wooden jetty towards Kani’s palm-fringed shore and finally find yourself captivated by a new experience. Entering the centre of the island you will be welcomed in the shade of a majestic old banyan tree and your holiday really begins.
The feeling of being at home with nature and in touch with tradition begin as you walk across the sands to the Reception right under this venerable tree, around which all the main buildings are grouped and whose broad branches span the entire area. Banyan trees are worshipped in some Asian countries and can sport a crown bigger than a soccer-field. Even in Kani this grand tree with an entanglement of roots as a trunk, forms the spiritual heart of the resort. The tree is estimated to be more than 100 years old and quite a few smaller versions are found all around the island. Kani started 20 years ago when a group of young Maldivians were enchanted by this island rich with coconut palms and dense tropical foliage untouched by man. They resolved to keep the essence of an unspoiled environment, even as they gradually added the comfort and sophistication demanded by today’s discerning travellers. What started with nine basic bungalows with rudimentary facilities and a small dining room is now a hotel with 150 rooms, each with its own bathroom, air-condition and solar-heated hot water as well as numerous restaurants and bars. Even when there are 300 guests on the island, the beaches and paths in the interior will seem deserted. To give the resort the ambience of a Maldivian village, each of the public buildings is housed in a separate pavilion, loosely grouped around the banyan tree just like in a village square and with their sides open to the breeze. Carved wooden posts supporting high, rattan-lined roofs, are linked by latticed screens placed above eye level to preserve an ever-open view of the beautiful surroundings. This concept of transparency has been persistently implemented with each new building, and now there are only few places on the island where you cannot see from one shoreline through to the other.
Kani is oblong in shape and stretches in a north-south direction along an outside reef. Although the island measures only 750 metres in length, that is 820 yards(less than half a mile) and 178 metres in width, it is easy to lose yourself amidst its lush greenery. There are guests who have come here repeatedly and have never even managed to walk round the island once!
A wide beach of coral sand embraces the island and, with bushes and plants growing down to the shore in some places, it is possible to find a secluded spot to relax and sunbathe in privacy. There is even a small plant nursery in the interior with hundreds of tropical plants grown to enhance the beauty of the resort.
Kani’s attractions on land are equalled by its surrounding underwater world. For divers, whether beginners or enthusiastic experts, the waters around the island hold a rich diversity of marine life. The energetic can enjoy a variety of organised water or land sports, including football on the grassiest pitch in the Maldives. And for those who simply wish to spend leisurely hours on the beach Kani offers the peace and quiet they will expect from a tropical paradise.
As well as being famed for its friendliness, Kani attracts singles, couples, honeymooners and families alike. With the wide range of sports and evening entertainment there is the right choice for everyone. Kani is definitely the resort for those who want to enjoy finer things in life! It is an experience you will never forget!
The moment, the memory and the dream.

Site Map of Assignment 2

Create a site map. You can create this map on paper or on screen. This map will describe how your pages link together, and how it will all appear together on the homepage, and how the user will go from one page to another.

Design Theory #1

I found a pretty useful Japanese book about design theory~

Here is the Chapter #1 which is about the design overview of a blank page~

Fall's Coming

I CRIED over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go, not one lasts.

Assignment #1

Introduction:
The first part of this simple assignment will be put to the test next week when we start to explore WSIWYG page creation. This week, we will begin to look at basic code and write our own simple page in HTML using Notepad. Next week, we will duplicate the same page elements using Dreamweaver. We will then print out our code, and compare and contrast the pros and cons of both approaches to web page design.

PART A
Using a text-only word processor such as notepad, create a working web page by typing your code by hand.Include in this document:A Page TitleA paragraph An ImageA link

PART B
Recreate the exact page you made "by hand," except this time, use Dreamweaver to build it.What are the differences in how you build this page? We can assume Dreamweaver is easier, but does it make anything harder? You can include these comments in your blog write-up.Next, print out the code from each file, and compare and contrast. Try to figure out if there are unneccessary elements in Dreamweaver's files. Play with deleting them in your code view. Observe which elements Dreamweaver adds that are useful and help your page. Keep extensive notes.This assignment will be turned in, in two ways. You will turn in your marked up hard copies, and you will publish the pages live on the internet via a link through your blog.

Here is the link of my first assignment:
part A:http://people.uleth.ca/~xi.yang/3520/sharp.html
Part B:http://people.uleth.ca/~xi.yang/3520/assignment1.html

*sweet chinese traditional dessert*

材料（可做24个蛋黄酥或24个枣泥酥，总之是可以做出24个酥皮点心）：

*油皮材料：中筋面粉（富强粉即可）300克、酥油 100克、糖粉 75克、温水（约38℃）130克

*油酥材料：低筋面粉或富强粉180克、酥油90克

*内馅材料：红豆沙500克，咸蛋黄12个。我在超市买的抽真空包装的咸蛋黄。一包12个。红豆沙也是在超市买的，一包就是500克。

*表面装饰材料：黑芝麻（或白芝麻）少许、蛋黄1个

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ingredients:

for skin: all purpose flour 300g, butter 100g, sugar 75g, warm water 130g

for inside sauce: cake flour 180g, butter 90g

flavor: read bean mash 500g

Happy Life Simple Design

Simple Design = Happy Life

an interesting theory of art

Today I read a really interesting article about advertising design. We always want to make our design look more complex, fancy and show off our mastered skills. However it produces a negative effect on the work. Maybe simple is another aspect of beauty which we are searching for a long long time...

Let's get it started~

hehe~ this is my blog for nmed 3520 net art class~

let's get it started