Front-End Design Conference 2010 - Recap
The Front-End Design Conference 2010 was brought together by Dan Denney and his team, which he confesses to be literally like family. This was round two for them after a successful first year holding the conference. The team arranged a fairly diverse set of local and international speakers who shared different viewpoints of what it means to be at the front of technological advancements and marketing opportunities for today’s creative agencies and individuals.
Before I headed to Florida’s west coast for the event, I promised the team at work I would gather some great resources and insights from each speaker and share them upon my return. You may already use some of the following resources; if so, I say cheers to that! Most of them I still find to be a good reminder of best practices and an encouragement to strive for excellence.
The morning started with lots of caffeine and a great talk by Larissa Meek, Associate Creative Director at Agency Net. Her talk was entitled “Learning to Love Ideas: Brainstorm 101.“ Larissa quoted one of her co-workers and explained that “Brainstorm is not the same as Design storm” – meaning that as accidental as creativity can be it requires a process within this industry. She also reminded us that the popular campaigns we’ve grown to love all start with an idea. Most importantly, memorable campaigns such as the most recent Old Spice commercials (which half of this world can’t stop laughing at while the other half simply can’t stop wondering how all of a sudden they changed the perspective of their company) are all based on great story telling. Another example she provided was the Phillips “Body Groom” online campaign, pointing out that complementing a traditional campaign multimedia initiatives, such as engaging sites and social media exponentially increases the possibility of positive results.
Other insights:
- Want to know about the future? Social Platform = Storytelling, to resume.
- Here is a reminder to all involved in the creative process: Ask why. Why am I given this task? Why did the client choose us? Why are we following this process and not another? And so on. Also ask why from a business and user’s perspective because they can some times be worlds apart.
- Few things to experiment when brainstorming:
- Explore all ideas without criticism.
- Take a break.
- Refine, Clarify & Condense.
- Take another break.
- Critique & choose the best ones.
- Also, keep in mind when brainstorming solo:
- Exhaust all options.
- Sketch or draw.
- Avoid disruption.
- And if you are brainstorming in a group:
- Set a time limit.
- Keep groups small.
- Stay on track.
- Give everyone a chance.
- Don’t criticize.
- Other brainstorming techniques to try include clustering, mind mapping, scamper, morphological synthesis.
Download Larissa’s slideshow here!
Next up, Niki Brown, Front-End Designer & Developer at Metropolis Creative went second with a small change of topic: Design is not only in the details, but most importantly, Design is in the BIG picture.
Here are some great resources she uses on her daily creative process. I highly recommended you add them to yours:
Color:
- kuler
- pictaculous
- colourlovers (personal favorite)
Typography:
- font-face
- Font Spring
- typekit
- !doctype.tv
- seed conference (personal favorite)
- sessions.tutsplus
- ilovetypography (personal favorite)
- webtypography
- blackestate (example of white text on black)
- code.google.com/webfonts
Visual Hierarchy
(Work examples)
JQuery:
The third speaker of the conference, Lea Alcantara, presented a presentation entitled, The Art of Self-Branding. Lea is a Designer, Developer, and Founder of Lealea.net.
It was revealing to learn the results of previous surveys showing the level of importance when building a brand when asking both companies and audiences:
- Consistency
- Understand the audience
- Message / Communicate
- Creative Brand
- Relevance
Notice how the creative brand, meaning the actual visuals, come forth in place to remind us that branding requires great planning first, then a distinctive culture and supportive identity. Branding is not just a logo.
Some examples of good use of these principles:
Download Lea’s slideshow here!
Fourth up, Meagan Fisher, Deputy Designer at SimpleBits.com, enchanted us with gorgeous slides about “How to take your Designs from Wireframes to Beautiful Finished Products”, as suspected. I was particularly interested on her use of color in the early stages of her process. Wireframes are usually built in monochromatic tones, but she showed us a solid color scheme and final proportions. I can only assume that in certain cases this allows clients visualize the final product with more certainty. I do, however, believe that this could also prevent the designer from re-evaluating the visual hierarchy on a page if he/she works within more strict approval processes.
Megan mentioned she would have the presentation online later this week. In the meantime check out The Grid System.
A well deserved lunch break with the awesome company of the Robot, Monster & Ghost team and Niki Brown, also allowed me to meet one of next year’s potential speakers Denise Jacobs. Denise will be presenting at this year’s Future of Web Design in New York along with Sarah Parmenter and Cameron Moll (great speaker and creative).
Running out of the rain, Jina Bolton, Interactive Designer at CrushLovely.com, managed to catch her breath and tell us about her experiences with “CSS Organization & Workflow”.
Some highlights Jina included on her presentation:
- Good Design + Good Development = Good Workflow = Good Business
- Be creative. Be efficient. Be psychic. Be smart. Be realistic. (all with web standards and best practices)
- When laying out a web site, don’t create pages. Create systems. (I believe this realization reveals itself to designers when we accept that trial-and-error is part of our creative growth in any aspect of our lives. Create a system that works for you and your team)
Other helpful resources:
Download Jina’s slideshow here!
One of my favorite talks was brought all the way from the UK by Sarah Parmenter, Designer and Founder of You Know Who Design. She broke down the “Principles of UI Design” by showing the creation, approval, and launch processes from both visual and functional points of view.
Starting with the basics, she suggested to clarify and ask the client to choose between an Apple Software Development Kit (SDK), a Web Only application, or both. Next, she provided tips on removing the precomposed gloss the apple has as a default when making custom icons by including your own on the original artwork. More about custom images/icons can be found on the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines. Similar to building web sites, she enforced the importance of putting your ideas on paper, doing sketches, and creating wireframes when designing Mobile Applications. Sharing these with the client will ensure a successful outcome. Also, “keep Steve happy” when going through the approval process.
In addition, Sarah advised to keep the following in mind before submitting your applications:
- Purely use the Apple SDK (where possible)
- Don’t use any Apple icons/imagery
- Don’t use any Apple trademarks
- Don’t use popular stock icons
- Try not to be controversial (graphic violence)
Last but not least, she told us to “keep your developers happy” by providing comprehensive documents and updated artwork ready for Retina Display.
Sarah’s blog has an app definition chart for download. It seems very helpful to anyone that’s starting to dive into this exciting and profitable market.
The presentation portion of the conference closed with Adelle Charles and her team from Fuel Brand Inc on the topic of “Fueling your Brand”. They reminded us that a brand is both “what you do and who you are”. Just this year, audiences perceive brands such as Old Spice and BP completely different from how they used to. These brands are also becoming some of the most popular and controversial topics in everyone’s mouth.
My last take away and to make a long story short, remember that actions say more than words. In these cases they say more than logos.
Hope you found these resources helpful and maybe I’ll see you at next year’s conference!
Posted by DaissyLinares on Aug. 03, 2010
