This first project is a landing page for one of my companies hospital clients. Stuck with their branding and with the style the other designer and I had set up for their landing pages. A video will go in the main portion of the header, this is a comp so nothing is final yet, although I think the client will like it. The title should give you an idea of what the landing page will be about.

Final version I submitted.

This next project I’m working on is another landing page and for another hospital. I really enjoyed this project because we were given much more freedom since we were to redesign their landing page templates…the old ones were a little over done. I came up with one comp and the other designer did a two. I hope they decide to run with mine, would be a big boost to my non-existent ego.

Final version I submitted.

The last project I will share is one that is already completed and being printed as I type. Every year we do the annual report for a client and this year I alone was given the freedom to redesign this years while still keeping some elements from the previous year’s theme. I was kinda proud of it, and can’t wait to get my own physical copy of the annual report. Here is the full PDF (ACES_AR_2011) and below are some sample pages.

Now I am not sure how much of this is already being done by the kindle, the nook, or that other crappy one, so bear with me if these features exist. The fun thing about physical books for many people is the ability to share thoughts, questions, and theories with other readers, mostly done by word of mouth or email. But with eBooks there is an ENORMOUS potential to integrate social networking into this and make it even more social than it is now. For instance, say you are reading a book and every time you bookmark your place that is shared on your Facebook feed, twitter feed, or even your google+ account *if you or anyone still uses it*. Not only book marking, but say on some pages you highlight a paragraph or page that you want to make a comment or note on and you can choose to share that as well. This feature would allow for a book club like experience with other people reading the book.

Now say you go to your eBook library on your device and you can see who else in your town, state, region or wherever has also bought the book and set up a kind of readers dialogue with this person or even create a group where all those involved and see where each other are in the book and share thoughts on the book the group is reading. Now not only within this group page/dashboard would you see some of these things, you could now see other people’s bookmarks in the book while you are reading, as well as see any notes or comments if you wanted to read them. The comments or notes could be made public to the group or private, and you could have groups comments that you could add to, these could be audio clips as well. I just found that there was a HUGE potential for this idea and that maybe I should sell this to Amazon and not be blogging about this, but I figured, what the hell.

Now the other big thing we talked about was how eBooks could be shared with others either same device only or cross platform…not sure how or if that could work for a number of different reasons. Now I’m sure book borrowing or sharing has been halted by the publishers…but why? Normal books have this problem, so not sure what the big deal is.

This is how I see eBook sharing going down…say you buy a book, you’re halfway through and a friend wants to check it out to see if they might like it. You go to your eBook library and select the book and select share from a menu of some kind, you then select who you wish to share it with, could be an Amazon account name/email and the book is then locked on your Kindle or device and you cannot read or open the book until the person you shared it with returns it. Now obviously I think the purchaser should have a kill switch to be able to take back the book at anytime. So the person borrowing the book now can also see where you have your bookmark and comments, and they can add comments to the book and place their bookmark as well. Now the power to delete any comments or bookmarks should reside with the owner of the book, incase the person who borrowed it decides to not finish it or you’ve lent it out to a ton of people and just want to clean it up. Say the borrower really likes the book, but the lender wants it back, they can then go to their library or even within the open borrowed eBook, chose to buy it for themselves. Once purchased they retain all the bookmarks and comments they have made in your copy and can choose to keep seeing updates to your comments and bookmark placement or to just prefer to not see what you are up to. Once they purchase the eBook, your copy becomes unlocked and you can now lend it to another. I think this is a GREAT idea, and once again I am not sure the specifics of how this would all work, but I think it’s a concept someone can run with. So get on that Amazon.

Literally spelling out everything summer is to us, it stands out from the rest of the summer pictures and cartoons. It goes to show that simple color and text can hold its own against beautiful photos and illustrations. The use of just sans-serifs and slab-serifs in a circus or a Victorian style layout really works to make this product fun. Pick it up just for the packaging (like me) or to taste (also like me).

]]> http://kevincote.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/gearys-summer-ale/feed/ 0 kevincote DSC_0007 http://kevincote.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/apps-fo-life/ http://kevincote.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/apps-fo-life/#comments Sun, 22 May 2011 22:07:38 +0000 Kevin Coté http://kevincote.wordpress.com/?p=697 Continue reading →]]>

As I promised in an earlier post, I bring to you my first app reviews. I thought it would be good to start by reviewing my favorite apps. A favorite app for me is one that I use on a daily basis and require it to be functional and look bad ass. The first three apps I use to fill my social networking needs…Twitter for the iPad, MyPad+, and Instagram.

I don’t really need to say anything about the Twitter app since everyone uses it and there is hardly a competitor out their as far as I’m concerned. I am/was a diehard Tweetie fan so I love the interface, however I do miss the customization or personalization that the website gives you. What I mean is, maybe having some kind of customizing options available e.i. background picture…maybe. Also I did discuss with some friends about how it isn’t easy to find old tweets. We thought about maybe a calendar option that allows you to see your followers and your tweets from a selected day. I think it would be a nice feature.

The next app I use quite a bit is the Facebook app, MyPad, which looks literally like the Twitter app. Before I found this app I used to use the website and other various apps like Friendly…and all were horrible experiences. The website works fine, but is kind of annoying at times with notification and uploading pictures. Friendly was decent for a time, and had the chat integrated into it too, which was very nice. However it broke way too often and one update completely changed the whole look and feel and was filled with bugs. They finally went back to the old layout, but it was too late, they lost me. There are bugs with MyPad+, but they are less annoying and less frequent, and I LOVE the chat they just added.

Now Instagram isn’t a iPad app…but it still works great on the iPad and still fun to use. However taking pictures can be a pain with the iPad, it’s still fun to be a part of the exclusive iPhone community and enjoy sharing creative photographs.

The next couple apps are hard to categorize, a weather app and a radio app. I check the weather everyday to see what the week will look like for mini golf, frisbee golf, and if I will be skipping work for the beach. AccuWeather is a free weather app that has a beautiful UI and has so many great options. You can see the weekly forecast, the hourly forecast (24 hour), video reports, maps, etc. I highly recommend this app purely because of the UI and how it utilizes the touch interface to the fullest.

The next app I use is another iPhone app that serves it’s purpose on the iPad with no problems. The Rock102 app is an online streaming app for my favorite radio station in the MA/CT area, and it plays only the best classic rock. The radio station has great DJs and has Alice Cooper on at nights (syndicated), which is awesome. The app itself is pretty basic, volume controls, shows the song title and artist, but it also gives you a form to make requests on. If you like classic rock, you need to get this app.

My last batch of favorite apps are games. I found a lot of sweet games on the iPad, but only a few kept me playing weeks after I downloaded it. Those games are Carcassonne, Words With Friends, Tiny Wings, and Ticket to Ride (new)!

Carcassonne is board game adapted to the iPad and is just as fun. I won’t go into how it is played (far too complicated), but it is a game I can sit down and play on the fly and enjoy myself without too much of a commitment. You can play games with the AI or online with other players.

Another great game is Words With Friends, basically Scrabble, but a very colorful and playful UI. You can play with friends and it has a basic chat so you can smack talk. However their word library is pretty liberal as far as I’m concerned…allowing words like “CaCa” and “Prez”.

Another sweet game is Tiny Wings, I was just recently introduced too…and I was hooked from day 1. Not only is this game fun and addicting, but it changes everyday. The levels changes slightly in layout and color/patterns. It is, however, for the iPhone, but it still looks pretty good blown up on the iPad. Worth the $1 to download.

My newest favorite game is a classic board game by Days of Wonder that just recently made its way to the iPad. The illustrations are just like the box and board art giving it a very nostalgic feeling for those who played the board game. I won’t go into the details of the game, but trust me when I say you will enjoy it. Ticket to Ride isn’t hard to learn and the online multiplayer is great, with an already established online community from the desktop online play.

You can also buy the expansions of the game with an in-app purchase for 99 cents each, which is pretty reasonable. I have one little problem with the app however…at each post game screen where all the scores are added up, chat is disabled and you can’t go back to the board and examine it further. I would also like to be able to have the option of re-matching 1 or all of the same people, because right now you just exit and have to start another game. Overall, it’s worth the $7 to download.

I hope you check out all of these apps and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. More app reviews to come, so stay tuned. Let me know if you find better Twitter, Facebook, or photo-sharing apps!

**Beware though, because I am finding a lot of beer reviewers are having the same gripes as me.**

I first heard of this Rum from an issue of Communication Arts magazine, where it was featured in with the 51st packaging design winners. It was chosen for a very good reason too, it’s bad ass. At this point I had only seen the bottle and label, little did I know that their was much more under the surface (pun intended). I searched online for the Kraken and found its Flash website, which is hours of fun to explore. On the site they sell a the perfume, the book, lamp shades, shower curtains, shirts, and so much cool/random stuff it will be hard not to buy it all. Once I get myself back on my feet financially I will be buying the book and a shirt for sure. Whoever did the marketing for this product knew what they were doing and did an amazing job. But none of that would have been possible if it wasn’t for the designer.

First the packaging/bottle, which stands out from most of the Rum I have seen in the liquor store. The bottle looks like it’s right out of the old world. The handles on the neck and the word “Kraken” raised out of the glass are probably my favorite aspects. The label design is what will really sell you on this bottle of Rum, with its victorian style drawing and design elements, it is very appealing. The victorian style typography is well executed and reinforces the brand throughout the campaign. The drawing of the mythical beast is charming and calls back to the age where it was not seen as just a legend. The wit involved on the reverse side and all over the marketing makes this product talked about. I bought this bottle merely because I loved it as a piece of art and one day it will break my heart to krak it open and have a taste.

Some designers I know aren’t completely sold on the large black and decorative name plate on the front. One person told me it was too busy and detracted from the drawing. I personally have no problem with the name plate and really like the metallic treatments and textures that have been incorporated as well. It is all in the details and I can tell the designer really enjoyed this job and put his heart into it.

If you ever have $15.99 to spare I would suggest you buy this…I hope it tastes good. Oh and enjoy the commercials I found, they’re awesome.

But with jquery come the problem of loading times…which I have noticed take a little while for my site. This decreased user experience and I am currently searching and testing solutions to this problem (any suggestions are welcome). I thought about just caving in and using cargo collective to house my portfolio, but I was and still am determined to make my solution work. Most of my work outside of the coding and optimization will be re-mocking up my portfolio work so that I can have a cohesive look throughout my portfolio, clean some things up, and to add more work.

Oh and if you try using IE6 or below to view my site…you need to die.

Already I am seeing new summer beers that I have not seen before, like Saranac’s Summer Ale, not to be confused with their Summer Beer/Lemonade Ale. All in all it is a pretty decent summer beer, light, refreshing, lemon twist (but surprisingly subtle). Not my pick of the litter, but when I tried my second bottle I was actually enjoying it. For a lot of people the lemon finish killed it for them, but it didn’t bother me so much.

The label and six pack packaging didn’t do anything for me visually, they pretty much stuck with the Saranac look, which I guess isn’t a bad thing. Check it out once it gets warmer out…depending on where you are that might be all year round…bastards.

So upon getting the iPad 2, I decided I needed a bad ass case to carry it around in. Back when the first iPad came out I heard about the DoDo from a blog post by Kevin Rose and fell in love with everything about it. I knew that when I got my first iPad I would have to buy a DoDo case for it. And thus brings us to now…

First let me say, their packaging for this was awesome. A very simple cardboard sleeve, kind of like a case for a special edition DVD or CD. I absolutely loved the debossed printing on the cover and sides. But my favorite part was the personalized little note inside thanking the customer for their business, gives it even more of that craftsmen/hand-built touch.

As for the case itself it looks awesome! The bamboo cradle perfectly fits the iPad 2 design and holds it in tight, but not to the point where you have trouble removing it. I do however have trouble accessing the volume and orientation lock, but other than that no problems. The book bound feel is also wonderful and holding this thing feels very natural and not too heavy. Also has some propping positions making it all around functional. I value the DoDo as much as my iPad for the same reason; they are both beautifully crafted pieces of art…and they were both on the expensive side.

If you are looking for a case for your iPad, Kindle, and now BlackBerry PlayBook…I would have to recommend you check out the DoDo case. Check their site for more information and cool videos about the products and the production process.

Anyways I will making comments regarding the iPad 2 and app reviews from time to time, but mostly I will stick to beer and design stuff. I will be posting updates via twitter and Facebook so check either one for new posts. Looking forward to getting back into the blogging game. Keep it fresh web heads.