Just something interesting I found.

Red Fang - Prehistoric Dog directed by Whitey McConnaughy

Oh man. Awesome. My new favorite band, Red Fang, kills it in the spirit Kyuss and other trashy heavy blues rock. I’ve been waiting for this music to make a comeback. The video also works great and mixes some of my favorite things. Maybe I should move to Portland…

Sigur ros - Gong unofficial music video/film directed by Eric Lerner

It’s been awhile since I made a (music) video post, and I thought I’d better play catch-up. This is an interesting video/film I found for the Sigur Ros song Gong in which a camera crew follows a guy around for his day while he wears a sort-of ‘mood’ device. I love the concept and the way in which it was shot. It’s different than traditional music videos because it has the makings of a film (though I’m sure its not the first time a music video was shot this way). This is an unofficial video, so unless Sigur Ros falls in love with it, I don’t see this ending up on TV or other places in the future, so enjoy.

This is always something that bugged me. Regardless of what you think of Youtube, it’s the most widely used video sharing site and it’s here to stay. I personally like other video sites for their nicer visual player, but many people enjoy Youtube’s. I personally think it’s a little bulky, but it is easy to use. However, the design leaves something to be desired, so I tried my hand at updating it.

I kept the same size and overall look. I merely updated it to be more consistent, cleaner and crisper. It provides a nicer overall design that most people won’t find agitating to have within their clear websites. Most notable are the toned-down background and simpler slider. Here is a side-by-side comparison, with my updated bar on top:

This could be accomplished by Youtube easily with some small updates to their glyphs. A little bit goes a long way.

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth “you owe me.” Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.

- Hafiz, Persian Poet of the 1300s

This weekend I played D&D for the second time, except this time was a lot more fun. My friend Elvis and his gang play pretty much once a week, and I tried playing a few months ago but had no idea what I was doing. Plus I created an awful character (a monk). This time though I pretty much killed it. I was a Gnome Wizard (Evoker) named Delorean. I won’t go into too much more because it’s really a game you have to experience with other people who are really into it. No, we don’t dress up. But I did burn alive at least 6 guys with 3rd lvl Fireball spells, then proceeded to fall down a shaft and have my brain sucked out by a Mind Flayer. A testament to don’t knock it before you try it.

PS - I still hate WoW

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the transportation system for all of the greater New York City (Metropolitan) area. This includes the NYC and Long Island subways, railroads, & buses. So it’s a big deal, and a website used by thousands everyday… and their website is horrible. Navigation is convoluted and poorly designed, and the layout makes getting the information you need very cumbersome. Everyone I know uses this site every time they need to check train schedules when heading into the city, and they have all expressed similar feelings (of annoyance) at the website’s design.

So I redesigned the header for more practice. I had planned on redesigning the whole homepage, but just don’t have the time (one day I might get to it). So I stuck with the header and navigation, which I feel is the most necessary part in this redesign. The navigation is now divided into easier sections to access the information you need, as well as visually separating the most used tabs - Schedules & Maps.

The visual look is taken from the iconic NYC Subway design: white Helvetica text on black background, with a white line running along the top. I also wanted the design to resemble their subway and train cars. For a final design touch I added a snippet of the popular and classic Massimo Vignelli 1972 New York subway map.

Unlike my theSixtyOne redesign, I actually coded this. You can view it here: MTA Header

(note: most images from http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/ - A great blog on identity design that I follow)

I understand that a lot of ‘brand updating’ requires simplifying the message and creating a stronger identity thru association, but I honestly think this is boring. Sure it looks nice on paper (or web), but how are BestBuy stores going to look without that huge tag on the front of the building? Personally, I’m a bigger fan of logotypes than logos. It is my belief that a name is the strongest thing you can associate with a product/service, but at the same time you don’t want just your name in a blah font. You need it to stand out. It needs to be unique.

Xerox has something going for it because the logotype can probably stand on its own, but the logo is kinda hideous. And Walmart’s previous logo was awful so that’s a welcome update. But in general I think this style of branding is boring, and there’s a lot more brands going for it. My favorite brand update of the past year or so? USA Networks.

What an awesome use of the letters and negative space to really make a memorable logotype. It’s so powerful they didn’t need a logo. They could have had “usa + [logo]” but they got more creative.

None of these identites and their logos are powerful enough to compete with some of histories most powerful brands. Check this chart for a quick list. Now, this is of logos not logotypes, but you all know these logos and know they don’t follow the same boring trend as above.

• Mac OSX functionality…c’mon Microsoft
• Harddrive functionality sans hack
• Smart playlists & editing playlists on the fly
• Custom EQ & Better ratings system per track
• Alarm clock & Countdown timer
• More codec support (.aiff & .wav especially)
• The price needs to be lower than the ipod if it ever wants to compete
• Also somebody suggested that it have a simple RSS-reader. That would be amazing.

If these came true I might actually get one…but as it is already the same price as an iPod with half the functionality, it will never take a bigger piece of that pmp marketshare.