Interesting Links

Grundy & Northedge is an interesting British graphic/ info design house. Peter Grundy and Tilly Northedge studied art and design in the 1970's in England and partnered in 1980. I'm primarily interested in the process illustrations they've produced. The style is that of urban signage or safety instruction manuals; it often has elements of 3d, architectural in feel, but retains a flat and saturated type effect.

They offer screen and interactive design as well. Their own site interactive design tends to be a little confusing and lacks some basic interactive functions while trying to do too much and too fancy.
   
Honey Design is designer Rina Miele. I heard of her work through the British digital art magazine Computer Art Projects. Miele has done graphic and interactive design for clients in the music industry as well as the gaming industry. I'm inspired to see a design site that isn't afraid of trying something outside of the often ridged, geeky, star trek mind. This design enhances her value. Instead of using multiple pages to show a body of work, she gives one large page in which the user scrolls across using the scroll bars. This tends to surprise the user in a pleasing way. The main element of the page is a scrolling archive of informal log type entries of what is happening in her shop. This element strengthens the user's perception of inclusiveness.
   

Psyop is a brilliant animation studio working primarily in advertising. Based in NYC, the partnership of 5 hit the ground running in 2000 and have had amazing output. ATT, Ford, ESPN, Homedepot, Infiniti, Starbucks, VH1, VW, and Sheryl Crow are just a few. Their work is very iconic, playful and cartoon like, irresistible.

Their website is interesting in that it is very sophisticated in it's interactive design and yet funky in it's typography, all type is hand written, even the controls on the media played interface.

   

Design of Signage Systems is a curious and interesting place to visit. Ravi Poovaiah, a professor at the Industrial Design Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India has put together a forum for discussing standardized signage and an number of links of industrial design in India interest. But the coolist thing is a library of free use iconic signage images for use copyright free. The images are not vectors but are all 600 x 600 and quite useful for a number of applications.

The interactive nature of the site has little to be desired. It is unclear what is the intention or how to get to what you want.

   

Firstborn Multimedia is a graphics and interactive studio in NYC founded in 1997. Their work is so good its scary. They have worked with everyone from the Beatles to Victoria Secret. Their graphic work is a very contemporary simple, clean look. The motion graphics stand out as very natural and smooth.

The site for their studio adheres to some strict rules of info hierarchy within its interactive and motion design but does so in a fresh and modern way.