Joshua Lane’s recently updated site is fantastic. I’m a big fan of the nav structure, the symmetry and centered branding. Also that background pattern is elegant and Joshua nails it with the slightly darker stroke around the floral shapes.

The work of Brian Michael Gossett | Since78 has been making the rounds over the past few days and after looking through his portfolio it’s obvious why he’s getting this deserved attention. The work is impressive, varying from illustrative to heavily composited and all tied together through careful typographic choices. Bookmarked for sure.

In the fall of 2009 I worked on a community project for Dell called INsight. You can read about the project here, but the overall gist is that it’s a place where people can test, review, and provide feedback directly to Dell about their experience with various software packages before they are released to the public. The whole project was basically a pitch, something the consulting firm we partnered with could take to Dell and show it’s potential. We delivered a functional prototype that I helped conceive both strategically and creatively.

Generally speaking the portals I’ve seen that follow a similar model of a testing community tend to be boring and overwhelmed with content. If someone is going to willingly sign-up to take part in a beta process then they either a: already have an interest in the products being offered, b: need an incentive to participate, or c: all of the above. We knew that the site needed multiple incentives.

One of the first decisions I made is that this site needed an aesthetic style that would encourage users to interact with it. I took some queues from Netflix since I feel they do an amazing job at providing an interface that makes me want to browse multiple products at a time and easily dive into each if I want to know more. I created these “software tiles” which provide key pieces of valuable information about each product to the user at a high-level. I varied the font sizes, color, and placement of the content in order to create a hierarchy that gives the user the ability to quickly scan these tiles and get the info they need. One thing I don’t show in these sample images is that I designed a information pop-up that displays on hover (after a short delay) which provides a short description of what the product is about (again, a la Netflix) so that they don’t have to click into each page to find that out.

Aside from visually stimulating a user to interact with the site, we devised a system that would reward users the more they used the site and participated in the beta process. On a simple level we instituted a “level-up” ingredient that would tag a user as a “novice”, “expert”, etc. We also included “badges” that a user could earn as they completed certain types of panels or quantity. In a more tangible way we assigned a point value to each product and if the user completed their participation then they would earn points. These points could be traded in for real-world rewards such as free shipping, order codes at Dell.com, and gift cards. In addition we added the option to include a prize giveaway to a panel where a user would be selected at random to win a laptop or something like an Xbox 360.

It was important to provide incentives from varying angles because we knew our target audience would be diverse and that people choose to participate for varying reasons. Plus it was a way for Dell to help drive traffic to certain panels if they wished. Increase the incentive and you have a better chance at getting more people to participate.

Even though it was a pitch and the future of this project has yet to be defined, I enjoyed working on this project, crafting out all of the UI elements, and working up the overall strategy with my coworkers. There were plenty of creative challenges along the way and anytime I can work on fine details and little icons like in the “Rewards Center” I’m in design heaven.

Last week a coworker of mine put me on to Super Furry’s work. These examples are just a tiny sliver of his portfolio, but it gives you a glimpse at how capable he is as a designer. I’ve been doing more logo work recently and have established a greater appreciation for artists who are so good at that line of work that they make it look effortless, which is definitely true of Super Furry.

These spreads designed by Arcade for Hudson’s Bay Company showing the design of the Official Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games uniforms and apparel collection are almost enough for me to give up my citizenship and join the Canucks. Almost.

Yet again the brilliant minds at Ars Thanea craft up something gorgeous that I just have to share. This piece was done for the upcoming, 10-episode series Life for the Discovery Channel. It apparently ties in with Planet Earth and looking at the artwork you can see a nod in that direction with the sun glow around the “e”. A breakdown of the project process can be viewed here on Behance.

Outside of UI and website design this kind of photo-illustration work is something I absolutely love to do.

Recently Thread & Water announced that they are partnering with The Water Project to help support their efforts in providing clean water to Haiti. This is where all of the proceeds from the shirt and print sales will go. The Water Project is working closely with Living Water International, who are on the ground in Haiti repairing wells.

The support for Thread & Water so far has been awesome and I want to thank you for helping us get this far! The needs of the Haitian people are still great and very real, so please continue to partner with us in getting the word out. Tell friends, family, coworkers, send tweets and post on Facebook.