The solution to pixel perfect edges is so simple! simply click the drop down option arrow, and select “Snap to Pixels” and draw away!

Adobe Creative Suite 5 will be launching on Monday April 12, 2010 at 11am EST. You can register for the global launch online now.

Over the past few months, my graduating class has been working very hard to prepare for the annual grad showcase. I was fortunate to have been chosen as the project manager for the web team and it has been such a great ride. Today was particularly special because things finally seem to really be coming together.

We have officially launched the event’s website: YSDN10 I am so proud of how well my team has worked together. Every one worked very diligently to help make this possible. We wanted to take advantage of the web as a way of interacting with the end user, rather than simply speaking to them. In past years, the event website was quite static in that users would most likely only visit once. We wanted to change that this year and we’ve implemented a number of strategies.

First, we’ve started a blog. Okay okay, so everyone’s got a blog these days, so what? Our blog serves as a way to document the process of creating our grad show, which is fitting since this year’s theme focuses around the process of design. We want to allow users to get a glimpse into the work we’ve put in, because let’s face it, putting on a show of this magnitude is not easy. The second feature of the site, and probably the pride and joy of the web team’s efforts, is the filtering system within the gallery. This filtering system allows users to decide for themselves how they want to see our work.

The show will take place at the Fermenting Cellar at the Distillery District in Toronto from April 18 – 21. If you happen to be in town, please make sure to drop by and have a look!

My first exploration yielded one that was quite interesting, but I felt it to be a bit too random and slightly tacky, which bothered me.

I took the experimentation from my first attempt and learned to use them in more subtle ways to animate the text. In this clip I explored lighting, depth, glow effect, lens flare (Slightly tacky, I know, I know, but when am I ever going to be allowed to use lens flare ever again??), subtlety in movement, pacing, an over-exposure effect, scale, and colour. I also had my first attempt in pairing typography in motion to a sound file (most important less learned from that was that AE really doesn’t do well with mp3s! Something to do with how mp3′s compress the audio information?)

Anyway, let me know what you think!

My first impression of the redesign was quite positive. I was happy to see that the site was visually much more pleasing and that someone had taken the time to give it a fresh look. It makes excellent use of the space that is offered by modern resolution sizes and very great use of white space. A grid was now set up, where there wasn’t one before, and they ditched the table-based coding for the box model. Big plus.

The home page is much more organized now. There is a definite sense of hierarchy has been established and certain elements are given prominence. A carousel has been created using jQuery to cycle information that GO wants its users to see and buttons have been created for the three things riders care most about: service status, fares, and schedules. Below this, is secondary information that the user may or may nor care about.

The global navigation utilizes an unordered list, but I wish each link had a specified height and width so that functionality would be better. The secondary navigation pulls out in a drop down on hover then proceeds to animate to the next item as your mouse moves from one link to another. Now I’m not a huge fan of drop-down sub navigation to begin with, but if done correctly I don’t mind it. The animation on this one annoyed me quite a bit and I found it to be very unnecessary.

A large number of the static content pages make use of an accordion effect to relay the information. I like that this helps to break down the information-heavy content, making it more inviting. It would have been nicer to have the functionality to close each accordion by clicking the title again, rather than having to scroll my way to the next section (kind of defeats the point doesn’t it?)

One aspect that I am greatly disappointed in is the schedule system that is available to the riders. This is the same organization that had been available on the previous version of the site. Ever since I began my classes at Sheridan, I became an infrequent GO rider. Being infrequent meant I was constantly checking the schedules to make sure of the arrival times of my bus. I remember the very first time I came across this system, I was so puzzled by it. It took quite some time to navigate and figure out how to find the schedule for the right bus.

The first option is to choose from a list of GO schedules. This displays a list of schedules, but these schedules are not by bus route number, as most transit systems will do. This, on the other hand, displays a list of schedules that they have come up with based on destination (Buses often pass through same locations, but have different routes). Clicking on a schedule will bring you to another list, asking you to choose the day that you are riding and the direction you are traveling. This will then pull up a schedule (with several bus routes all in one). Also, for some reason, this schedule breaks the layout (it did this in the previous version as well).

The second option available is to choose from the weekday quick tables. There are four locations that are most frequented by the GO buses: Square One, Union Station, York University, and Pearson International Airport. Clicking one of these will bring you to a page where you can view PDF versions of the quick tables (which are business-card sized tables with arrival/departure times).

The last option, the one I use most, is the schedule finder. This had taken me ages to figure out on my own, which was not a pleasant experience. If you’ve never used it, try it out and tell me what your experience was. I’d be very interested to hear about it! There are several drop down options that you have to select through (these fields change depending on previous answers, so I realized you have to answer them in order for the finder to operate at its best). After finally figuring out how to answer all the fields, you get the aforementioned schedule from the first option.

I really wish they would have taken the time to rethink the information architecture of their schedules. Not only are they difficult to understand for a first-time rider, it creates a frustration that they do not need. (GO has a reputation for having too many delays and late bus/trains)

That’s my take on the redesign, your thoughts?

I wrote out “fire” using raw sugar, then burnt it using a creme brulee torch. Enjoy!

Now, on to the holiday feasting …

Over the summer, I spent some time interning at Honey Design, a marketing and design firm in London, Ontario. While I was only there for a short amount of time, I was able to gain some of the real world experience that can’t be taught in a classroom. The ladies at Honey were so wonderful and taught me so many things. During my time there, I was fortunate enough to be able to work on several projects both print and web. Although I was not able to see any of the projects to the finish (because limited amount of time), it was very interesting to see the progress and work flow at different stages.

One of the projects I worked on was a website for Cornerstone Architecture. This architecture firm is unique in the way it approaches the brainstorming process. One of their methods is to sit down with the clients in a brainstorming session. During this session, rectangular pieces of paper are physically arranged on a blueprint to see what works best (as opposed to simply sketching on paper). This allows for a number of different configurations to be easily created. When one of the configurations looks good, they photograph it for reference and continue on looking at more.

I created a preliminary site mockup using this brainstorming method as inspiration. The final design is slightly different, but the essence is still there. It is meant to bring across the fluidity and movement of their brainstorming process as well as the appearance of a simple blueprint.

My old art director at Honey emailed me recently to tell me that the site was selected to be featured on Canada’s Web50. While the site isn’t actually mine, and the design has changed since the original concept, I’m so excited to see it featured! I was so blessed to be given the opportunity to work at Honey and I learned so much. Thanks!

Back in October, the Envato tuts network held several contests to celebrate their 3rd anniversary. I was fortunate to win one of these contests – a sweet PS pillow from MySuiteStuff! It took a while to get, because they’re all hand made, but I’ve finally got it! Very soft and very cuddly

Kind of funny, it reminds me of a pillow I made for my buddy Eric at PixelChef Creative for his birthday in January. The craftsmanship isn’t as great as the MySuiteStuff pillow, but in my defense, it’s an odd shape that would take practice to perfect.