DESIGN CHATTER
The 50 States Get a New Look
Jan 20, 2023
If you ever wished your state had a custom illustration, today is your lucky day! Artist Bogdan Katsuba has made bespoke, minimalist illustrations of all 50 US states. Many of them are pretty self-explanatory, like a bear for California and a lighthouse for Maine, however, as Georgia residents, we are going to need a little bit of an explanation on our frog design! In our opinion, Texas’ cowboy-hatted rattlesnake wins best in show.
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Acrylic Pours Go Commercial
Jan 18, 2023
You’ve seen the acrylic pour videos online (we know you have, they’re fascinating!), and now the technique has made it to packaging design! It was probably only a matter of time, but we love the result. Artist Craig Black was tapped to design packaging for BrewBird, a pour-over coffee brand, the “pour” connection just clicked. The startup coffee brand wanted a look that would stand out against the usual coffee bean motif of most other coffee brands,
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Spotify Time Capsule
Jan 13, 2023
Spotify is here yet again with another cool experience: an audio time capsule called Playlist in a Bottle. Users can collect their current favorite earworms and put them in a drive that will then be inaccessible until 2024, shortly after you get next year’s Spotify Wrapped. They’ve also got cool song-inspired prompts, like “pick a song that reminds you of your favorite person”. Once you collect all your audio memorites, Playlist in a Bottle will keep them safe for you for the next 365 days.
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New Clue!
Jan 11, 2023
Well-timed with the recent success of the whodunnit movie Glass Onion, Hasbro has redesigned and updated the classic board game Clue! The fan favorite has been updated not only visually, but also in game play, character backstories…and possible motives to the murder of Boddy Black. This is a very cool visual revitalization of a time-honored classic game to make it more accessible to modern players, with the new characters now skewing younger, and more importantly, diverse.
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Static vs. GIFs images: What do customers want to see in their inbox?
Jan 11, 2023
Studies show that people’s attention span online has steadily decreased over the past 20 years. Marketers must work harder to keep audiences interested, especially with email.
With so many companies vying for people’s limited attention, the type of imagery used in emails impacts a campaign’s effectiveness and people’s perception of the brand. The question becomes: When does it make sense to use static imagery versus animated gifs?
How people read emails
People aren’t reading online.
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Data visualization design best practices to make decision-making easier
Jan 11, 2023
Organizing data is a special skill. When done well, people can understand exactly what your numbers mean and the story you want to tell. However, when you don’t put your audience front and center, it doesn’t matter how pretty the charts look, the information will be useless because you aren’t telling a visual story that makes sense.
By incorporating design best practices into your data visualizations, you can transform complex information into insights people understand.
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