Kizmo

Google’s announcement of “Chrome” (yet another web browser to compete for your surfing hours) is a big point of discussion this morning. More interesting to me at the moment is the comic created by Scott McCloud to introduce the browser to journalists and bloggers (Google Book version and PDF available here).

At Kizmo, we’ve discussed and used comics as a means of expressing complicated interactions in many of our documents. For example, storyboarding interactions in a functional specification is usually far more effective a description than a pure-text effort.  Of course, with a creative director who’s a former comic book artist, visual story-telling runs in our company DNA.

McCloud’s panels do a great job (in my humble opinion) of expressing some of the technical concepts and features of the new browser, as well as the reasoning behind them, to the target audience. While Valleywag takes a different view, I think the complaint that the material is over many people’s heads misses the probable intended audience. I wondered why the comic was created and for whom it was intended, and then saw that McCloud, in his handy mini-FAQ, says that it’s intended for journalists and bloggers. Presumably, these are the same journalists and bloggers who’d be likely to cover the launch of a new browser, and I think the comic does a good job of covering some technical concepts to people with some, but possibly not a lot, of technical knowledge. Ever tried to explain a virtual machine, or protected memory?

Check out the comic. There are a couple of places where I had to think for a minute to get the picture, but there are some neat illustrations, too. Literal sandboxes, phishing illustrated, and on page 25, a reference to a meme from which I used to derive great amusement were some of my faves.

I’d like to share with you the works of Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir, one of Flickr’s most famous photographers. She has a unique way of taking advantage of her beautiful homeland, Iceland. Not to mention her composition and colors are stunning!  What an inspiration!

This informative and fun site explores the power of color in communicating human characteristics and eliciting emotions: Color in Motion: An Animated and Interactive Experience of Color Communication and Color Symbolism

It’s widely known that people formulate subconscious judgments about a person or product shortly after initial interaction. According to the CCICOLOR, 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color.

If you were wondering, yes, Kizmo is ambitious, competent and cheerful!

Smashing Magazine featured more than +40 Excellent Free Fonts For Professional Design back in November. However, I just found out about them and am rather excited.

It could be because I’m a sucker for purple and black but this little blog is just so neat.   Using the horizon line as the beginning of the interface… love it.

The blog makes me want to sit on a hill, under a tree and watch the sunset.

Perspective, which seemed to have been big in design in the late 1960s, is making a comeback!

I first noticed it on my Lost DVD collection (yes, I’m one of the Lost watchers).  I’m noticing it more and more.  Do we have the new gloss look?  We’ll see.

Veerle’s Blog recently had a poster competition.  The theme being “What is Graphic Design.”    Some neat stuff.  Check it out.

Logan Hicks is a stencil artist.

David Seah’s new business card is almost too simple. But the subtle shift of a circle over less than an inch says everything you need to know about his work, and invites the viewer to construct a story in their head. I love seeing a complex idea reduced into such a succinct graphic.

Clever solutions to data visualization using web standards. Wilson Miner of Everyblock shows off how some clever markup, styles and choices can make even complex data visualization possible without resorting to images. While it might not be worth the time on every site, it’s definitely a neat trick.