A few months ago I was approached by the Boston based social network Going.com, asking if I might be interested in helping to design and develop their first mobile application. Going.com is focused on letting users find interesting places and events, and connect with other users based on who is going where, and when. Since their core mechanic involves pushing users away from their computers, branching into the mobile world was their logical next step.
Let me start out by disclaiming that I had never designed anything for mobile. Ever. The closest that I had come to mobile was doing web interface design for the mobile start up Zingku a few years ago, back in the SMS days… before any graphical user interface was realistic for mobile devices.
So I had to sell myself to this potential client as honestly as possible. I know user experience design, I know graphical user interface design, and of course, I have used a mobile device plenty. Maybe it was my charm, more likely it was my ‘lower-than-normal-I’m-learning-this-as-we-go’ price quote, but they decided to let me take a crack at it.
My essay on Perception and Digital art was recently displayed at the Aronson Gallery at Parsons School of Design. While the essay mostly explored criteria for the critical evaluation of artwork within rapidly evolving mediums, it led me to a project idea.
This past semester at Parsons I had an assignment in one of my classes to design a concert poster. Let me walk through the whole process from the brief to the final poster, and explain the steps that I took, and the decisions that I made along the way.
The Brief
The band I was going to be designing a concert poster for was the Bristol England based trip-hop group Portishead. The final poster was to be 18” by 24” and include extensive information about the show’s venue, barbes, in Brooklyn NY. The “client” (actually my professor and the rest of my class in this situation) wanted to explore a couple different concept directions that we could then pair down to a final design that felt the strongest, refine that a bit, and get it ready for print.
It is with great pleasure that I announce the launch of my latest project, Billboard for the People: A Public Celebration of Progress. Deroy Peraza, over at Hyperakt Design Group had the brilliant idea of channeling all of this positive energy surrounding the election of Barack Obama into a grassroots effort to congratulate our president elect with a massive billboard in New York City.
The idea is pretty simple…
Step 1: We all donate some money over at BillboardForThePeople.com. If you are feeling inspired and generous, and can toss in some serious coin, fantastic! However, even if it’s just a few dollars, every little bit counts.
Step 2: We tell all of our friends about this initiative, and hopefully raise $25,000 by December 15th… Be sure to Digg it, join on FriendConnect and Facebook, etc, to help spread the word.
Step 3: We install a beautiful congratulatory billboard in Manhattan designed by Deroy Peraza, and the good folks over at Hyperakt, just in time for Obama’s inauguration, and welcome him into the White House with style.
After doing so much design work for Web 2.0 start ups, I made this satirical start up investment pitch video about a year ago, but never really pushed it out. Now with the market in the hole, it seemed appropriate that I offer the tech industry a few ideas… Venture Capitalists, feel free to get in touch.
Saturday was the opening of The New Hope exhibit in Geneva, Switzerland, which I had the honor of doing a piece for with Hyperakt Design Group. After gaining international attention for an Obama poster designed by Deroy Peraza at Hyperakt, the studio was asked to do a full series inspired by Obama’s message of hope, to be exhibited at the Flux Laboratory in Geneva. I contributed a Flash-based interactive piece called Kids Vote 2008 which explores kids’ perspectives on the election through an interactive cloud of comments on the two presidential candidates. While the piece is currently being projected at the Flux Laboratory, it can also be experience online at:
I was responsible for the interaction design and front end development of this piece, and with a two week deadline, was left with little time for sleep over the past two weeks. However, with the site live now, and on display in Geneva, all the hard work feels pretty good.
While it is a little too early to hear any direct feedback from the show in Geneva, Kids Vote 2008 has already started to get some attention around the web, with a “Fresh Picks” feature on the website Moluv, a mention on the Communication Arts website, and a blurb on E-Creative.net.
