Category: Design

All things relating to design – architecture, graphic, industrial, etc.

Jack – In the Box

As I’m sure many of you know, I’m a big fan of well-designed things. In the last few days, I’ve been looking at quite a few re-designed corporate identities, including Jack in the Box. Those of you from Utah may not be all that familiar with Jack, though it’s quite prevalent in many places on the West Coast. I myself became much better acquainted with it because of my long stay in the state of Arizona.

Anyway, this is about the redesign of their logo and identity. Their original was just your basic, straightforward fast food logo. It’s got the “Here I am, look at me!” type of feel to it, if I may say so. Oh, and I seem to recall some people that I know complaining about the ‘Christian Fish’ type thing where the ‘O’ and the ‘X’ connect, though I don’t see why it was a big deal, even if it was put there to symbolize something.

The new logo, however, has a very different feel to it. I’ll say right up front that I’m not a big fan of the huge separation between the ‘Jack’ and the ‘in the box’ part. The parts are just too distinct, I feel. They don’t tie together well. But, as to the ‘Jack’ part of the logo, I’m really a big fan. It’s got a retro, cartoon-style to it, of which I’m a huge fan. The script they used is also quite catchy.

Overall, I feel that it really takes them in a different direction and separates them from other fast-food restaurants. It’s just got a really different feel to it than most fast food logos.

Oh, and down below, I’m a huge fan of the all-horizontal alignment in the first picture. I think it looks very, very nice.

2009-03-07
The Intuos 3

Today I received my amazing Intuos 3 tablet from Wacom. So far, I’m super-excited about it. It took me awhile to get the settings figured out and whatnot, but man am I happy with it.

I didn’t get to use the Cintiq tablets down at BYU, sadly, since they wouldn’t check out the pens to my level in the program. But now, I’ve got my own. Well, okay, it’s not the same thing, but it has the same purpose.

Anyway, so far I’ve only played around with it for a bit, but what I’ve done so far has made me pretty darn happy. It should be awesome for when I’m designing stuff. Plus, it allows you to just draw. I don’t know about you, but my drawing with a mouse has always been sub-par. So, now I can draw with a pen.

2009-02-13
Vancouver Special – Renovated

Lately, I’ve taken a liking to contemporary design. There are some things that I’m not incredibly fond of, but overall, I think that it makes for some awfully beautiful architecture.

So, it’s only natural that I liked this renovation when I saw it. It took a basic, old, rather ugly (if I may say so) design which is apparently heavily overused in Vancouver. But this renovation is just stunning. Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. So, without further ado, here you go.

Recently, I’ve been interested in doing something like that myself. Not that I’m in any position to do so currently, but sometime in the future I would like to purchase a somewhat small home and renovate it so that it looks absolutely stunning.

Hopefully some day I’ll be able to do that.

Via Contemporist.

2009-02-02
Holy Amazing Presentations, Batman!

I just found (via a blog that I follow) the thing for which I’ve been waiting for an indeterminably long time. That is, an amazing alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint. I mean, I know, Powerpoint makes our lives easier (especially in school, for me), but still… It’s ridiculously… Ridiculous. Seriously. Who really enjoys using Powerpoint? Sorry, Microsoft, but it’s not my favorite thing.

But this thing you see above, entitled Prezi, is absolutely amazing! Right now it’s in its beta stages, but what I see so far is absolutely amazing. You should be able to see above. And man, I’m certainly not disappointed.

Anyway, take a look! I’ve applied for the beta testing, but it’s a ‘private’ beta, and therefore I have no assurance of actually making it in. But if I do, I’ll let you know.

2009-01-24
Life – Through New Eyes

Well, I suppose that cameras really don’t have eyes. But lenses and light sensors and whatnot are kind of close to eyes, right? In a technological sense?

Anyway, last week I made a somewhat sudden (though also somewhat premeditated) decision to purchase a DSLR camera. I had been looking at them for the last little while, and based on Consumer Reports’ information on the subject, I decided to purchase a Canon Digital Rebel XSi. It’s a stunning camera that takes amazing photos, and I can’t complain about having access to 12 glorious megapixels and the ability to snap 3.5 pictures per second.

More than anything else, however, it’s made me totally unafraid to snap tons and tons of pictures. It’s probably not healthy for my hard drive, but it makes me want to take the camera everywhere (even if that may just be a result of the cost…), just to snap pictures.

Anyway, I have to say that thus far I most certainly have not been disappointed, at least by the camera. It takes awesome pictures and I’ve been able to practice quite a few new things that weren’t even an option before.

I don’t think that my family members are the biggest fans of my being able to take tons of pictures in rapid succession, especially my little brother, but I’m sure that he’ll get over it eventually. He’s always been a bit camera-shy, and so far he hasn’t been the most enthusiastic about my being able to take so many more pictures, but hopefully he’ll get more used to it as time goes on.

2008-12-17
Flawed… On So Many Levels

In writing this post, I would like to draw your attention to the included picture, more specifically the paragraph to the left of the gloved hand holding the cigarette. Notice anything? Like an uglier-than-heck typo?

How is it that an ad, more than likely professionally produced and printed (as I saw it on a nice, big sticker), could have such a grave error? I just don’t understand it.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have never been the biggest fan of English classes. But I do, however, know that they have been very helpful in my learning to avoid such flagrant errors in my writing. And, assuming that the ad at the left was produced by someone with at least a high school diploma, that person spent at least 12 years of classes learning English.

How, then, did that slip by? I also assume that the person responsible for printing the ad also had at least a high school education. Then how did he or she miss it?

My point is that I could understand (though be disappointed) with an error that a student perhaps made in writing a paper. But when making an ad that is supposed to have a large audience, how could you do that? I’m sorry… But I’m just very disappointed. Saddened, even. I think that I’ll go cry now, for the sake of the people that made that ad.

2008-12-01
A Bacon Dispenser… Novel!

Okay, truthfully, this really hasn’t the slightest bit to do with a real bacon dispenser. I wish, however, that such really was the case. I think it would be really cool. I mean, I like bacon. Don’t you?

Anyway, the site where I originally found this image was pointing out that this is merely making fun of a very underappreciated graphic designer. While I would tend to agree with it, I mean, making pictographs isn’t the easiest thing, but it is really funny. You have to admit that such is the case. I mean, what could be funnier? Very little, I dare say.

Anyway, today has been a good day, just so you know. Despite the fact that I’m making a totally random post on the site, I’ve enjoyed today. Oh, and in my class we’ve been given the assignment of exploring Home Depot. Cool, eh? Yes, cool. When have you had a more exciting assignment than that? The answer is never. Never in your life. But here I am, with one of the coolest assignments in the history of the world.

Oh, yeah… We’re supposed to design a purse (of all things) out of something that we find at Home Depot. I mean, that’s super-cool. I wish that I were designing/prototyping something a little bit more useful for me… But hey, it will be funny anyway.

Anyway, have an awesome day.

2008-11-13
Box-type Thinking

I thought this was pretty funny. So, I had to post it. I think that at many times in our society we encourage ‘in-the-box’ thinking. Especially in schools. But hey, such is life, right?

Oh, and in other news, I was waiting to re-register applyclan.com, because it was a good domain, and it seems that some automated thing bought it instead… So I’m kind of angry. We’ll have to see if it’ll let me buy it back.

2008-11-09
In a Bind

In pondering Shaine’s Comment about my site, I’ve started looking at a number of other blogs and how they manage the titles of their posts.
The conclusion that I have reached is that there isn’t a whole lot of variety among the more popular blog sites. Many sites have a very limited amount of styling/design on the posts themselves. As far as that goes, I don’t believe that I completely agree with it. Why not have a nicely designed title for your emails, and not just an overly large bit of text?
Mainly, I’m just a tad bit frustrated that I haven’t been able to find any absolutely stunning designs for the titles of blog posts. I’m working on something new for my own, because I agree with Shaine. But the simplest solutions that I have yet tried really haven’t turned out well. As a matter of fact, they’ve all looked quite a bit worse than what’s currently there. So, if you have any genius ideas, shoot them my way, please.
Otherwise, you’ll just have to wait until I come up with my own.

2008-08-21