52 weeks of design | Blake Smisko

Apr 15 2013

52 Weeks

Week 35 – To Do List

Task

This week’s challenge is to design a calendar widget. It may be for any platform (Think: Android widget / Windows 8 Panel / Windows 7 “Widget” etc) and may have any theme you wish. You can make it so that it displays a month, or a week, or it displays the upcoming appointments etc.

Here is some inspiration:

Calendar Widgets on Dribbble![1]
On DeviantArt[2]

I’m terrible at using the calendar on my phone, so I chose a mobile setting for the challenge this week. I do really like making lists and especially like seeing as much info as possible like you typically would on a whiteboard. So with those things in mind I started mocking up a mobile weekly calendar. While it doesn’t harness the chaos and potential scannability of a huge whiteboard, I like the idea of being able to flip day to day and have on going stuff always there so you don’t forget about it.

Tagged 52 weeks of design, app design, Blog, calendar, calendar widgets, design, design blog, digital design, mobile design, weekly calendar

Apr 08 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design – Week 34

Task

Good day Designers, how is your Monday coming along?

This week we will be designing an ad for the object that is on your right right now. Please be real about it though, for example on the right of my desk you have the following items:

My HTC Sensation phone, a pen, an empty glass, a lamp, the book 1984 and a MP3 to USB port cable. Now an ad for an empty glass or a USB cable might not be as interesting. So pick one of these that will look good in an ad!

Be creative with it!

Inspiration and Resources

Take a look on Behance[1] , very interesting stuff!
And on Dribbble[2]
Adweek too![3]

The size may be anything of course, it could be a gigantic billboard poster to an ad on Reddit to a tv commercial (still image). If you plan on printing it, make sure it’s the right size (just google “poster size”) and to use 300 ppi!

I got this hat last spring at a rail jam in Hermosa Beach. I love it and tried to find a way explain which south bay they are talking about. It’s still rough around the edges, but I also think it easily would fit as an as in a skateboard magazine.

Tagged 52 weeks of design, advertising, blogging, design, design blog, dvs, skateboard magazine, southbay, trucker hat

Apr 01 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design – Week 33

Task

his week we’ll be diving further in web/interface design. Your challenge is to create an interface for a music player.

This can be Windows Media Player, iTunes, an Android Music Player app, a MP3-Player interface.. basically anything that plays music and has an interface.. mkay?

Here is a list of resources/inspiration:

Android MP3 Interface

Android Design Guidelines[1] , you are encouraged to read it all. It’s a good read!
Android Mp3 mockup[2]
The size can be the resolution of your phone (looks it up!), but be sure to use ~200ppi!

I decided to take a shot a making an app for one of my favorite social music sites, This is My Jam, where people post the song their favorite song of the day/week/moment. After friending enough people you can get a decently varied, ever changing playlist going, which is where the app comes in. My main goal was to retain the feel of the site while stripping the funtionality down to just your playlist and the social things you can do while listening to that playlist.

Thanks for taking a look,

Blake

Tagged 52 weeks of design, design, gadgets, mobile interface design, Music, social music, this is my jam, web design, web interface design

Mar 25 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design – Week 32

Task

This week we will design a landing/login page for a website.

If you go to facebook.com or twitter.com and you’re not logged in: That page is the one we will be designing.

You can pick an existing site and redesign it, or just create one for an imaginary brand. When you’re redesigning one, keep the brand colours in mind! (So with facebook or twitter you shouldn’t go all out red etc).

Inspiration

Construct Sign in page [1]
Myspace, Pinterest, Google+, Soundcloud and Twitter [2]
Also look at this Dribbble search[3] for inspiration!
And This one[4] !

The size is basically the size of your monitor minus the taskbar and browser things. A good size would be1349px*643px at 72ppi

For this week I made a sign in page/landing page mock up for a bikini company I’m currently doing work for.

I tried to keep the fun look they currently have but make it a little less pink. I also utilized some of the social media buttons I made 2 weeks ago and I’m pretty happy with how they look within the design.

Tagged 52 weeks of design, graphic design, landing page, login page, mprint, swimsuit, web design

Mar 11 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design – Week 30

Task

This week we will be designing a set of share buttons for sites like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Pinterest and/or any others you wish to create.

The buttons have to have something in common.. the same shape, color set or any other general aesthetics. Go wild!

I wanted something simple that fits in the emerging flat web trend, but still had layers and looked tactile.

P.S. Free Shipping on art prints this week

Tagged 52 weeks of design, Facebook, flat web, google, graphic design, icon, icon design, Online Communities, Pinterest, reddit, social media, Twitter, web design, web trend

Feb 25 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design – Week 28

Task

You woke up today the owner of a company that bears your name. Could be a company that produces specialty moustache wax, or a car dealership in Raleigh, or even a small plumbing company in Fargo. Maybe you’re global…JACOB JONES INTERNATIONAL ZIPPER MANUFACTURING CO. for example.

Choose an industry, type of company, etc, then turn your name into it’s logo.

I went for a beer store or bottle shop with a classic Americana feeling. Something that would be on a pier or near a harbor.

Thanks for reading!

Tagged 52 weeks of design, beer, design, script, signage, typography, wood

Feb 18 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design: Week 27

I’m Back! Sorry for the hiatus.

Task:

If there was an app that let you launch instantly into the top 5 activities you spend your free time on, what would the shortcuts or icons on your desktop / mobile device look like for each?

E.G. if one of your favorite passtimes was snowboarding you’d develop a snowboarding icon, and when you press it you’re instantly transported to some fresh powder runs on Blackcomb Glacier.

Or if the activity is picking your nose, go there.

Create a set of icons for your life.

So I kind of went for more of a merit badge kind vibe. I realize some of these wouldn’t scale well, but I really like how they look. If I was going to move to a mobile resolution/size I’d simplify the water and reddit badges.

Tagged 52 weeks of design, design, icon

Jan 07 2013

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52 Weeks

52 Weeks of Design: Week 25 and 26

For week 25 we just posted something we’d done outside of the challenges so I showed off my travel posters, which I have available in all kinds of shapes and sizes including t-shirts.

For week 26

Task

Prepare for a new year by taking your top resolution and turning it into a graphic piece. Posters are suggested in the title, but anything is welcome.

Maybe you remind yourself to drink more water by designing a ‘DRINK MORE WATER’ coaster for your desk. Or designing a ‘START JOGGING’ sign to hang by your shoe bin at home….just try to capture whatever the goal is in some sort of graphic representation.

Here are some examples for inspiration.[1]

Good luck and Happy (early) New Year!

I’m planning to use Code Academy and might even make it a weekly blog post to help motivated myself.

Thanks for looking, and as always comments and critiques are welcome.

Tagged 52 weeks of design, code academy, design, html 5, society6, travel posters

Blake Smisko

Graphic Design or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Ramen

Tag Archives: 52 weeks of design

Week 35 – To Do List

52 Weeks of Design – Week 34

52 Weeks of Design – Week 28

52 Weeks of Design: Week 27

52 Weeks of Design: Week 25 and 26

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Graphic Design or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Ramen

Tag Archives: 52 weeks of design

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