Sutro Bleu

I can't stop thinking about the words Sutro Bleu. Sutro Bleu is an art movement that exists between two people, one person whose life has branched into other areas, and whose life only crossed with mine in the silhouette of a boyfriend, who I dated for a month or more. His roommate Victor and I met up in San Francisco when I was there for work and he was passing through, and we went to the abandoned and ocean-washed Sutro Baths.

And, over dinner and after viewing the ocean, we created an art movement, Sutro Bleu. I recalled it the other day with friends, while we were talking about something to do with their lives, and Sutro Bleu came to me. And it was totally, and utterly, mine. It's mine, and it's originally and inspirationally mine. It felt like some identity, some value, something solid and there. And, strangely, it had been gone, muffled under the waves of life, for almost five years. Why did it just come up, suddenly, and why is it now, persistently, in my thoughts? Sutro Bleu, Sutro Bleu, what are you saying?

If I take it like a dream: an art movement, a character named Victor who, with me, created something originally ours, something that ties in with who I am; a person who grew up near the oceans of SF, with water in her back yard. And with France, and the beauty of France, the fun of European Travel, and who we want to be.

I think that'll be my new design name. Sutro Bleu. Should it be my blog name, too?

- P

Two-Toned & Monochrome

.... From City Dog's Single Color to the Two-Toned Love of Isaac Hers.

& How you Can keep Monochromatic Interesting
& How to Create the look & feel of Expense & Elegance with a two-toned look

Lead down the rabbit hole of Monochromatic sites, I came upon City Dog, which plays the Monochrome like a winning hand. What makes this site successful and not boring is the visual subject matter-- it has a beautiful (are maps almost always beautiful?) grey map as the background pattern. The map has various shades / values of grey, some darker and some lighter, so it employs not only interest in its pattern, but in its tone. The fact that it's still all one color keeps the visual in-tact and together.

It also employs visual candy like vintage images, a rotating carousel with great writing ("Boot or Bone?" "Friend or Foe?" "Litter or Lunch?") and those snappy vintage images, and an intriguing pointed dog logo (the vintage style is great, the pointing dog is as serious and playful as the business, and by pointing it's saying, "Found It", with "it" being, of course, the business).



Then we move to Sketchnotes, which employs some of the same basic interest points and some sneaky hidden color. Instead of all grey, it's a grey blue, which adds a little more interest for the mind. It also has a varied and playful background pattern-- it's covered with little comics, each one surrounded by white, so it's spotted with fun and playful images. They make the mind wander over the page to read them, which is a great way to entertain the viewer / user and to lead them over the page Without Their Realizing It. Mind control? Well, yes. Some of the hand-drawn text also adds happy variety. But the hidden color! Scroll over the Buy On Lulu.Com and Voila! Hidden Green and a Starburst! Eva Lotta Lam can't be constrained by blue and adds the Easter Egg green throughout. Yes, OK, it's just colored links and a starburst on her Buy button, but the playfulness is fabulous.



And where does this rabbit hole end?

Surprisingly, it ends with a very sheer simplicity and elegance, one that I didn't expect. But when I ran across it, I knew this was the reason why I'd followed the path.

Take a gentle monochromatic piece (calling black and white monochromatic) and add a sheer, simple flesh tone, and you get the Coco Chanel look, or the... Converse Vogue look, or just that striking elegance of all-grown-up and partying at fancy places. Look at Isaac Hers. Her header image is of a delicate grey zigzag pattern. The spikes of the zigzags give it some power, like teeth, but the thin lines keep it elegant and gentle. And then, add the sheer, flesh-colored box to the center and it looks like a perfume box, or a clothing box, or a label, and it definitely looks expensive.




So that's how to create the expensive and luxury look. Use a monochromatic pattern and add a very sheer and clean/contained shape over it, preferably to encase the name.

And if you're going Monochromatic, remember the element of play. Use variety in your pattern, text, and entertainment (carousel, witty language) or even employ an Easter Egg of color, and voila-- successful site.

Have a fabulously designed day!

The Creative Comment Box

Check out Slow Like Honey's comment box:



When I designed comment boxes like this, I always thought they were too elementary and it showed that I didn't know how to design. Seeing Slow Like Honey's comment boxes, though, not only transported me to the past but has reawakened my sense of the comment, or of online forms, in general. Why do the boxes have to be "clear" or "white" and look like general forms? Why can't they look entirely different? Slow Like Honey's comment box actually looks really good and balanced with the rest of the page / theme of the site, btw.

Looking up "Creative Comment Box" only brought up one list via Google, and even that list isn't that good. They're all "boxy" and bulky and not very creative at all-- they're all reiterations of the same thing. Is there any way that we can make comment boxes look different? I'm thinking tabs, different shapes, voice recognition, all sorts of things. Of course, some of these examples might create more steps but perhaps more steps are WORTH IT.

What is wrong with incorporating more steps? As long as it doesn't get dizzy or too involved, I think that we're allowed to create just a tad more adjustments for the user. I don't want to say "work" because that should be kept to a minimum. I don't know why, but this is reminding me of this winery website I once saw (can't remember what it was now) but the main page was this circular map and, as the user hovered over different parts, the whole map would turn to the left or right. It was very confusing, hard to follow, and generally a headache. So I'm not saying to go "so creative" that it fails and becomes confusing and a pain. But maybe I'm saying to go even more creative and to come up with a plausible solution that's clear, concise, and different.

Can you do that? Do you know of any creative comment boxes? If so, please share, and I will continue to keep my eyes open for them and think about how I might create an interesting and new type of comment box.

Improving The Holocine Website

OK, my post yesterday has been haunting me. Is it really OK that the splash page to The Holoscene website is this small image / island of Portland? Is it OK that they have so much negative space? Sure, it's fine. But what hit me every time I saw it was that I thought I was accidentally seeing a mobile site. That's true, and it can't be denied.

What could make it better?

They could command the space more by taking those moving flowers and placing them in some neat, intricate design, around the island of Portland. Or create a whole new design using the moving flowers element. I think that would make the site way stronger and more interesting. Perhaps that's the problem with the site-- there's too much wasted potential and not enough interest. Though way cool, it could be way better if they utilized the space and the design elements that are working... more.

The Holoscene: A Delicate Movement

My friends Ashley + Calvin just wed at The Holoscene on Saturday and, true to their world-class design style, they chose a venue whose design is well carried throughout their physical and virtual space. The physical-- well, creative, but let's check out the virtual.

When you first open the Holoscene site --it sounds like opening a present, and that's what a website should be-- it should be a well-tailored gift-- you're greeted with this 8-bit scene in the middle of the page, surrounded by white space.



What's cool about this is the delicate movement of the bird as it flies through the abundant space, making the space become real and active. Also, the "glittering"? of the colored lights in the skyscraper window. This also creates a sense of life, which is rarely seen in a website. The various levels of earth are a great way to incorporate a menu within the design itself. In fact, all it is is menu, which is awesome. The delicacy of the labels make it look modern and fresh, which takes over the 8-bit feeling, making that seem like a choice, not a limitation.

Now here's the true crown-- hit "menu" and look at those flowers. They move and change as though they're listening to some invisible music. It's a great incorporation of movement without taking over the scene. In fact, the delicacy does take over the scene, but it's so open that it keeps its boundary, leaving the viewer without feeling overwhelmed. What's lacking in this simplicity is a back button (OK, you can use your browser's) or another menu to explore the various pages in the site.



There's some nice animation near the bird in the "links" page, as well. It's powerful in speed, but extremely delicate. This delicacy and action brings in a definite feeling of life.

My favorite part, though, is the implied music through the flowers. They seem as though they're moving to music but, fortunately, there's no music involved. It's like, the site knows that we can't open it at work with sound, and not everyone has the same taste, so why appeal to universal appreciation of sound? Give it the implied sense of dance and let the user fill in the rest. Well done.

Line of Thought

Line.




Today I was thinking about lines and realized that they're everywhere, they're existent and nonexistent at the same time when they define the edges of objects, and they're anything but ennui. Ok, what prompted this line of thought? A design class where we were forced to draw various lines, and where we need to create works of lines for some major projects. And the professoressa (who left a job that advertised for her replacement in The New Yorker) asked us, "Do you find this activity boring?" to which we all/most raised our fingers a degree and shifted our eyes. But nay, says I, and fortunately these images that remind me that the simple line is a thing of beauty, and can be a part of beauty implied.

Check out The Art of Immersion by Frank Rose. The contour lines remind me of a melted record. And notice the illusory, perpendicular lines that form as you scroll the page up and down. Magnifique.



Or the image at the top of this post, a poster by Fabien Barral that incorporates color and star charts. Star charts are beautiful examples of poised and elegant lines.

The stars themselves also create lines, and that's another beauty of the line: even without being there, it's often implied and present. It's the strong and invisible line, like the vision of someone pointing. Today, while Nannying, I pointed to the sippy cup on the floor and said, "where is your milk?" hoping that he would see the invisible line that connected the tip of my finger to his cup. Instead, intrigued, he grabbed my finger with his full fist, then proceeded to shape his tiny hand like mine, index finger out, and to point at a few books on the shelves. He was totally absorbed in the curious quality of this motion, and I was absorbed with the ability to witness the formation of life lessons within an individual. The line was lost, but he'll connect the dots eventually.

http://www.graphic-exchange.com/home.html

Finally, check out these prints from Brent Wadden. Thanks, Design Sponge, for the inspiration.

Book Cover Design - Something Completely Different

I was walking along the bountiful bookshelves of Powell's last night and checking out the Science Fiction section, a bewildering place because I know nothing about it except for the fact that Mark likes it; so I often venture into the dragon-filled, paperback world and find myself dumbfounded. What to get? Does he like Knights and Dragons science fiction, Martian Fiction, Wizards Fiction, or Futuristic lore? (Does that even make sense, anachronistically?) I don't know what he likes, I don't know what authors are good, and, quite frankly, all of the books look the same, which is so confusing.

It's true. They all look like romance novels with men in action poses, riding dragons or horses or space ships. That is, they all did, until Simon Morden revolutionized the Science Fiction book cover, shaking it to its core. I mean, just look at his geometric covers and then the goulash of books around them. They stand out. They "speak volumes!", they're different. They're all optical illusions, which is in perfect theme with the content of his work.

Bravo, Orbit. It'd be cool to know who the designer behind the covers is. Do you know? Do you have a favorite book cover?