#ixdfam

Icon Designer: Everaldo Coelho

I came across this icon designer purely by chance when reading Jon Hicks’ “Icon Handbook”. He is not featured in this book but one designer lead to another and I really like his work.

Everaldo Coelho is a Brazilian graphic designer who specialises in icons and user interface design. He is 39 years old and is known in Linux circles for his “Crystal” icon theme. He has worked on projects for Mac OS X and windows XP platforms and also as a freelance artist on many projects for companies such as Mozilla and Linux. He is also founder of Yellowicon.  He started out as an illustrator for children's books and magazines but later bought himself a Mac, installed Linux and WindowMaker, and started making icons for Conectiva. Most of his work he does on Illustrator. 

Signup and Progressive Disclosure

After asking others for advice on how to improve Dash, I received some great responses. I took each piece of advice and created a task list, from this list I investigated each of them to understand their feasibility. Whilst some idea simply did not fit or work for the app, others inspired me to create a better product.

One of these comments was about using the idea of progressive disclosure on the initial login screens. I hadn't come across this term before and so it prompted me to explore and understand this concept in order to implement it.

Progressive disclosure is an interaction design pattern that sequences information across multiple screens, or more simply information is presented in smaller chunks over a number of steps. The idea is that by giving the user less information at once, they will feel less overwhelmed and there fore make it easier for them to interact with. Often this is used to display content to users only when it is required or requested by them.

I thought about the impact this idea could have on the Dash signup process. When users first open the app they are presented with an email input screen where they enter the relevant email address. No buttons need pressed as the app automatically moves the user o the next stage. If the email is registered with an account the user is asked to enter their password otherwise they are prompted to create a new password and accept the terms and conditions. This flow removes the user seeing all the fields at once, it also removes that annoying feeling users get when they cannot remember if they already have an account or not and if so which email is it linked with.

My Visual Mark 

My visual mark is minimal and, as you can see, it is a lion which I can associate with me and I am not just taking about its hair colour! The lion represents power, strength and leadership and these are qualities I would like to portray as a designer/illustrator. My aim was to show creativity and this was incorporated by adding the pen tool at the bottom of the lion’s mane. 

My Monogram Design 

This is the final design for my monogram. I combined my first initial, the letter “r”, and  my surname initial, the letter”n”, into above design. 

By taking the lowercase “n” apart, I was able to create an”r” out of it. I made the legs thick to achieve this. Hopefully people will be able to recognise this.

Cityscapes: London Illustration

This is the second exercise of the set of master apprentice exercises. I chose to draw the London one first, with every intention of trying Amsterdam or Paris over the weekend. My illustration is the top one which is slightly larger than the original one below. I just wanted to get back into the way of using Illustrator before attempting more detailed illustrations. This should put me into a better position when I come to designing my travel app. 

Monogram Project by Hope Meng

I have been browsing through Hope Meng’s project to try and get some inspiration for my monogram. She has a lot of designs in black and white. I like the way her letters are quite abstract. She has deconstructed letters and maintained their legibility. I think a good design will always work in monochrome and if it doesn't perhaps there is something wrong with it.

Icon Designer: Orman Clark 

Just an extra icon designer that I thought was worth a mention. Orman Clark is the creator of Premium Pixel and founder of Dunked. He started as a graphic designer in the British Armed Forces and has a lot of experience in web and graphic design. 

Digital Mood Board