Velvet Roundup №6
Welcome to our probably-not-weekly roundup where you’ll find interesting articles, links and ideas, and also little updates about what we’ve been up to.
Birthday 🎂 🎉
A few weeks ago we put on our party clothes and went to Siidrifarm to celebrate our 14th birthday with an Italian themed evening with different musical and dance acts.
Have we failed?
When Mike Monteiro talks we usually should listen what he has to say. He has given our industry a lot of great value in form of books with “Design Is A Job” and “You’re My Favorite Client”, some great presentations, and thought-provoking essays.
Fast Company Design has published an essay by him where he argues that current generation of designers have failed. That we need to be held accountable for “moving fast and breaking things”.
It’s a long read, but definitely worth it.
“There are two words every designer needs to feel comfortable saying: “no” and “why.” Those words are the foundation of what we do. They’re the foundation of building an ethical framework. If we cannot ask “why?” we lose the ability to judge whether the work we’re doing is ethical. If we cannot say “no” we lose the ability to stand and fight. We lose the ability to help shape the thing we’re responsible for shaping.”
And if the article struck a chord with you then watch this presentation from him in 2013.
AKU + Dolby
Our friends from AKU did beautiful work for Dolby. Alari Orav writes about the process and techniques used in creating the piece on their blog. Great insight into their creative process.
Your website is making me sick
Our everyday design tools are becoming more mature and starting to have options for creating animations. Also, developers have lots of new libraries and technologies for the implementation part.
Animations on the web are nothing new, but I think it’s time for a little reminder that overusing animation can not be just annoying, but make people ill. There is a fine line in fun and useful or making users sick.
Val Head in 2015 wrote a great article on A List Apart about the subject.
Also, check out the OpenNews post about the same thing in online journalism:
404-page award goes to …
Often overlooked part of the website, but if done correctly can be useful and funny. That’s what official Olympics page is accomplished really well.
If you are not following Olympics closely and not getting the reference, then the header picture is from 2014 Winter Olympics where the opening ceremony had some issues. Read more about the malfunction on The Verge.
