Singapore is a warm tropical country and having the air-conditioner on all the time really sucks. The natural thing to do is to get Fans. But the problem is the mainstream fans sold in stores really suck.
From a product design perspective, is it because its a difficult item to design with all its electrical-motor-motion-safety-bits, hence there are not a lot of good stuff out there? Ok, I did some research and found a few nice ones. But still… “Fans” are hardly a normal category found in most product design websites.
If you have anyone of the following, pls let me know where you got them and how much. Thanks.
OttoVentiluxOur Biggest FanPropello±0
If you have nicer fans to recommend, pls add links to them in my comments, thanks.
Have you seen some designs and think “That looks so easy to do, i’m sure even my grandmother can do it.”. The thing is, after being in the web design business since the mid 90s with roles ranging from design to coding, pitching to convincing clients, I can confidently say its not the case.
Let’s just take a look at the above example of The Marmalade Pantry’s menu which I came across last night. It looks so plain and simple, no intense graphic design, no super amazing concept, but somehow the whole thing looks fantastic. Let’s break it down and take a look at some design decisions that was considered by the designer.
Capitalisation – Notice how dish items are CAPITALISED to accentuate it from the description. Bold or underline was not used. This gives the whole menu a light and classy feel.
lower case descriptions – The descriptions are all in lower case, not sentence case as the description are not sentences at all. Instead these descriptions are a continuation of a sentence of the dish item.
Labels – Some dishes are labelled with a “(+)” instead of a typical “*” or small icon. Also “(+)” was used instead of “[+]” which I find is a good call as the sharp corners of “[+]” adds a bit of stress / up-tightness.
Spacing – Everything is well spaced and given enough white space for breathing room so that its easy for the eye and not cluttered. The content is also well away from the edge of the paper which is nice. Each line of text be it a menu item or its description also had the same line-height, this also allows multiple columns of text to line up nicely horizontally.
There are lots more items that can be talked about, the choice of font, the quality of paper, the colour of the paper, the position of the logo and the tagline, copywriting, etc.
If you think that’s all, no its not. There are also the non-design stuff that needs to be factored in.
Profits – Was the design of the above $5, $50, $500 or $5000? Did the designer burned his weekend doing it? Was this design job even profitable? Even Rockstars need to eat.
Approvals – Never have I seen a designer presenting a design to the client and the client go “this is perfectly what I wanted, good job, here is your payment, consider this project completed”. To add another level of complexity will be to get approvals from a committee of non-design people who are travelling consistently and do not want to take responsibility of giving the approval. *cough* gov *cough* clients *cough*
Other Agendas – Some projects are ego trips. The REAL matrix for measuring project success could be if your direct client managed to approve a design that the big boss really wanted and hence give him a raise or promotion.
I know I’m being extreme here, but I reckon you get my drift. There could be a lot of emotional investment, angst and stuff that you can’t see from a seemingly “simple” output. So dear client, when something looks simple and yet it sort of feels right, pls pls pls don’t add crap comments to it because you feel that you must give feedback to the designer you have engaged. Try smiling and tell the designer “it looks simple, yet… somehow… FANTASTIC! I’m glad I hired you and I’m sure it’s not as easy as it seems.”
ps: the shadow is my iPhone and did you notice its nicely aligned vertically? :p
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
We just crossed over to 2011 and a lot of us were counting our blessing for what happened in 2010 as the economy bounced back. Some of us even looked back at the past 10 years. So what’s different for you when you compare your 2000 to your 2010?
For me, the key highlight will be I had 3 kids and my career is now on the fast track. Of cause my digital life have also grown a lot amongst other things.
But what will the next 10 years be like? How can we prepare for 2020 in order to get a head start? What kind of mindset should we start adopting to get ready for the next decade? How can I as a parent prepare my kids for 2020?
So, my question is, “Are our children getting the play they need to thrive in the 21st century?†According to reports from sources such as Harvard University, Time magazine, Newsweek, and The Futurist, the answer is no. ~ Frog Design
I’m still reading it, but just the first chapter alone is powerful enough for anyone to start thinking about what are they doing now and what are they really good at. Life is short enough, so if you want to start living and stop complaining about the daily grind, then take action. Quickly find out what you truly enjoy doing and go for it.
When I was in Uni, my Internet Security Lecturer told us on the very first lecture that whatever he taught us will be obsolete when we graduate. He was mostly correct. The world is changing too fast and its really anyone’s guess on what it will become, especially for my industry which is the internet.
If we can’t predict the future and our best guess will still be a guess, then how can we prepare for it? I believe we can at least prepare our attitude towards it and adapt to it when it happens and invest time really discovering what we are naturally good at.
Threewords.me
Being in my mid 30s, I believe I know myself quite well and am quite sure I’m doing what I love and what i’m good at, but what if i’m wrong? What if there is a huge blind spot and I can’t see it. What if there is something else? I believe Web Project Management is my job, my day gig, but could I transform into a superhero outside of this day gig?
So if you are a personal friend of mine or have worked with me in the past, do help me discover my super power by just providing me three words at http://threewords.me/nickpan. Its super easy and you can do one for yourself too. :)
As for my kids
I’m on a mission to enhance education for my children, I want them to enjoy what they are doing in their life and at an early age discover what they are good at and encourage it. Right now I think Clié is a dancer, Cleo is a collector / curator and Clara is a leader. But its still too early to tell.
The thing about her is she can’t sit still and will move to any melody she can pick up. As you know Disneyland constantly have a soundtrack going on, so the entire place is filled with music. We were just sitting down, waiting for my wife to pick up photos when I notice Clié dancing in front of me. Took out the camera and recorded this impromptu dance she did.
Slant Land
Also we have started a project to create a world where its filled with their imagination and we named this world Slant Land. The trees are slanted, the houses are slanted. We have a map of Slant Land and we are progressively filling it up with my kids’ imagination. I hope we keep at it and create something they can remember for the rest of their lives.
10 years ago on this very day, i’ve decided that the internet will be my future and that I should invest in a domain name and have a permanent place on the net.
In my room, there are 2 iPhones, an iPad, an iPod mini (Clié’s) and an iPod shuffle (Cleo’s) that needs charging daily. The whole mess of cables is just too irritating a problem not to solve, so I went online to find a solution for at least a dock that can sit 2 devices.
It charges the iPad and iPhone well, plus its footprint on my desk is small. Problem is the dock is not good if I have an iPad cover on. It simple does not sit well when the cover is on. So if you are looking at docking your iPad or iPhone, do consider what cover you have on.
Anyway, its now used for charging both my wife’s phone and my phone. If I could chose again, I would get one that charges 2 iPhones side by side.
What do you use for docking /charging your stuff? Do share, I really would like to know. Photos would be great!
