Spinning the Web

Apart from coming in on a Sunday to finish off a pitch, this weekend we’ve mostly been playing with Google’s new Mac released browser Chrome and have been comparing it to studio favourite Firefox and Mac’s own Safari.

Now, lets get things straight first – this comparison is strictly how the normal designer sees stuff and won’t be an essay on how the tabs work. This isn’t Mashable. I am far too northern to wax lyrical or indeed technical about browsers. I was just feeling inspired. It’s basically my Tuesday today (did I mention I was in on a Sunday? Missing the Come Dine With Me marathon?) so the brain’s running faster than normal. Sorta.

Here goes.

1. Dock Icon.

The release of Firefox 3.5 made for a shinier, slicker dock icon of the Fox humping the world (that’s what it’s meant to be, isn’t it?) and goes along with the old addage, if it ain’t broke add a gradient. Safari’s icon has been the same for ages too – the compass. Yawn. Google chrome’s icon does two things. One – annoys the hell out of me while working as the red bit at the top looks like new mail in the corner of my eye. Cue disappointment when I realise. And B – it looks like that Simon game from back in’t day. Is that a good thing? I don’t know. Maybe they should have based it on Trionimoes. That game ruled.

Winner: Firefox

2. Add Ons.

Or lack of, if you’re Safari or Googley Chrome. I really, really wanted to scrap FF and start using Chrome at the start of last week, but it wasn’t until actually using the browser properly, on a day to day basis that I really started to miss things like Skipscreen and the handy Web Developer toolbar. What? I like to know how big stuff is exactly with the ruler! And the resize window is indispensible.

Winner: Firefox

3. Awesome Bar.

Oh man. I got nerd quivers when Firefox started the awesome bar. “You mean I can pretty much type ANYTHING in that bar, and it’ll find it? That’s AWESOME.” Plus, the search bar options were quality too.

Open up Chrome and what do you get? One bar. One awesome bar. One AWESOME BAR POWERED BY GOOGLE.

Winner: Chrome

4. Tabs.

Hmmm. This one is based on how cool they look more than how they function. Just. Safari & Chrome are pretty much the same beast here. Although I actually now prefer Safari’s restraint of the constant tab Firefox employed for 3.5. Just get rid of it! You’re making me click something that doesn’t close! Ahhh!!!

Chrome’s tabs are like Shark fins popping out of the water. CMD+T was never this fun! Duh-DUH. Duh-DUH.

And check out how sweet the little add tab icon is! That’s a winner for me.

Winner: Chrome

5. History / Top Sites.
Now, I don’t know if this really is a cool thing or not. I think loads of people are going to be in love with what Google Chrome does for your recent viewing history and if you compare it to Safari, it is pretty awesome. I mean, seriously, I am not the guy who built the matrix. What’s with the AWFUL curved top sites screens? It actually makes me nauscious. Chrome’s is nice and clean and the switch between thumbnails and a Delicious style list is really, really nice.

The good thing about having thumbnails is that you can see where you’ve been, but doesn’t really work if you view more than, like, 20 sites. Add to that all of your bookmarks. Now if you’re wanting to find something you saw ages ago, but can’t remember the name, but remember how it looked, you’re going to be frustrated. Chrome and Safari will tease you with recently viewed sites or most viewed site. Really, what use is that? I recently SAW THEM. I KNOW WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE!

Firefox doesn’t even bother with it. It just gives you a list. If you can’t remember what site you’re looking for, tough. Snooze you lose.

Winner: Firefox

6. Downloads.

Although Chrome has a very nice self-contained Download bar at the bottom of the browser, it doesn’t forgive the ‘Billy & Johnny’ use of icons to tell you you’re downloading something. Seriously. I’m not 7! I don’t need an icon bigger than my head to tell me something is downloading.

Safari & Firefox use a separate modal window for downloads (i’m talking bigger file downloads here, not saving images to yer desktop..) which is all good. Once again, if it ain’t broke.

Safari loses here because it still opens PDFs in a new tab. And that annoys me no end. So much that I think I actually stopped using Safari for that very reason.

Yes, I am that fickle.

Winner: Firefox.

7. Themes.
Once again, I am not 7. I’ll use my browser as it comes thank you very much.

Winner: Me.

Final result.

Winner: Firefox

Although I really do like Chrome, maybe i’m being lured by its new shininess. And the fact that I think Firefox is better is two fold. A. Firefox IS better and 2. I’ve used Firefox pretty much everyday for the past year, so when things don’t work the same way, I instantly claim it’s rubbish.

The same thing happened when Adobe discontinued Freehand and made us all migrate to InDesign or Illustrator.

But that’s a whole other blog post.

As part of an early new year’s resolution, I thought i’d start my ‘more blog posts’ ball rolling, so that i’ll be churning them out quicker than a blogging machine that blogs a lot. So without further ado, here’s what’s been inspiring the Manifest studio this week…

Japser Goodall
New site update from the godfather of digital illustration.

Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar Calendar
Fantastic 2010 calendar from Noa Bembibre. A whimsical phrase a month will make the year fly by.

Negative space in logo design
Shameful as it is, it was only after seeing this blog post that i realised there was arrow in the FedEx logo. Oh, the shame.

You can keep up to date with what we’re looking at on a daily basis via our studio Delicious page.

I should start by saying how proud we are at Manifest to be part of the team creating the first ever #LDNnudetech calendar. For those not in the know, it’s a nude calendar featuring some of London’s leading tech pioneers and (in)famous Twitter icons. Organised by Milo Yiannopoulos, sales of the calendar will raise money in support of Take Heart India: a tremendous charity providing and supporting practical, sustainable education projects to communities that need them in India. At Manifest, we’re doing what we do best to support the project – which means we are NOT taking our clothes off, but we are designing the calendar.

Once I heard about the project I immediately checked out Take Heart India and saw this video which inspired me to get Manifest involved. A quick email exchange with Milo later, and we were designing the calendar free of charge.

Martin Farrar-Smith is the designer in chief and although we can’t show you the calendar yet, the above image is a teaser of the design style we hope will do justice to the fantastic photography. Rumours of Martin walking around the studio in his birthday suit in order to ‘live the brief’ remain unfounded, but the design looks pretty good if we do say so ourselves. We’re making a few final ‘nips and tucks’ to the content and layout, but it should be ready in time for the calendar’s launch party on Monday November 16th. If you’d like to attend and see it for yourself then make sure you register via the #LDNnudetech network and Milo will keep you up-to-date.

Now, a nude calendar was always going to raise a few eyebrows I guess – but the controversy surrounding #LDNnudetech has come as a surprise to me. Maybe I’m being naive, but I thought a project designed to raise money for a worthwhile charity – whatever it may be – was something to support, not criticise. But apparently some people disagree. The controversy has only served to raise the profile of the project, however, and will no doubt contribute to its success. I’m not going to get involved in the debate here, but for any critics out there: it’s a nude calendar. Get over it.

It’s testament to the character of everyone involved (Milo, the guys at Huddle, Hermione Way, Mike Butcher, Lucian Tarnowski, Alicia Navarro, Sam Mathews, Poppy Dinsey the list goes on…) that the calendar will be produced in time for Christmas as planned – which was always an ambitious target for a project of this scale. Now all we need to do is sell them… so please do your bit and buy one

HARMAN technology is a client that often brings an interesting creative challenge – and this one was no different. Arising from a specific requirement for the unique Camera Imago 1:1 (not only the biggest existing camera in the world, but the biggest mobile ‘full-figure’ self-portrait camera), HARMAN asked Manifest to produce a brand and packaging for a new Black and White Photo-product called Direct Positive Paper.

Used in this ‘Walk in Camera’, Direct Positive Paper takes a direct positive image (equivalent to a slide film) of the person who is in the camera and creates images that have a real ethereal quality. The pictures really are stunning and it was essential we captured the same qualities in our concepts for the Direct Positive Paper.

The product is also to be sold to Pin Hole camera enthusiasts, as the process is extremely similar to the Walk In Camera, and with the same, beautiful results.

Above is the chosen mark for the brand – designed to represent the pin-hole and the ethereal nature of the shots it takes. We’re currently working on the boxes for these as well as a stand alone micro-site. All take a heavy influence from the works of Otl Aicher and Emil Ruder. We’ll keep the blog updated with further projects for this brand, as it’s definitely one of the more unique briefs the creative studio has had in a while.