Spinning the Web

Saw this on Logo Lounge at the weekend and while it’s quite a nice, colourful new logo for Edmonton Public Libarary, I couldn’t help but think i’d seen the ad somewhere before….

Separated at birth? The new Edmonton Public Library ad and the old Guardian ad below.

The new look Creative Review (yoinked from CR's post - get their side of the story there...)

Last month, every designers favourite magazine and monthly news source, Creative Review celebrated its 30th year in print. To celebrate this milestone, the CR team decided to give the whole magazine a refresh. The new creative review is smaller in size, thicker in stock and for the first time in a long time, chock full of articles that aren’t just a summation of the past month’s blog posts. Read the full story

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.

Ah December. The season to be jolly. And to make ludicrously inaccurate predictions for the year ahead, of course. It seems to me that under the guise of ‘predictions’, most of the soothsaying blog posts that appear at the end of the year read more like Christmas wishes and are more about what the author wants to happen, than what is likely to happen. So, we’ll try to avoid the ‘wishlist’ approach and come up with our 10 predictions for communications in 2010 – but we can’t deny there’s a bit of wishing about some of them (well, if December isn’t a time for wishes, then when is?). So here goes, in no particular order, our Ten in 2010 predictions are:

1. Social search becomes the norm: For the past ten years, web search has been dominated by Google. When we’ve been in need of anything, from toilet paper to travel advice, we’ve asked Google’s reliable algorithm. In 2010, we’ll see the current ‘hot topic’ of social search become a social norm for all web users. I already ask for recommendations on Twitter before I search on Google in a number of circumstances – particularly if it involves making a purchase – and the recent and ongoing changes to Facebook make crowdsourcing a recommendation or solution much easier. Google.com will always bring more results (and lovely, accurate ones), but recommendations bring with them so much more: trust, peace-of-mind and quite often a witty quip thrown in. That’s probably why Google is testing out its own amazing social search product in Google labs. It’s all a bad sign for SEO companies as they lose their grip on search – especially when you see Google personalised search take hold too. I guess we’ll see the continued growth of SMO as opposed to traditional SEO as well.
2. Apple changes the way we read: Okay, not just Apple, but touch-screen tablets like the one they’re planning to launch. TechCrunch have written about producing one, and a number of other manufacturers are rumoured to be working on products. Essentially, tablets fill the gap between a smartphone and a notebook – providing a convenient way to browse web pages, read documents or even watch movies on the move. They also potentially spell disaster for products like Amazon’s Kindle. However, there could be business benefits also. What if you were to show up to meetings with tablets for those taking part – allowing participants to view bespoke presentations, or slide notes, or creative design options? They could zoom and scroll through a design as they wish, while the presentation covers the key points. Okay, it sounds complicated and expensive, but we’re just excited about what will no doubt be a nice shiny new toy from Apple.
   

   Apple's tablet will arrive in 2010 and change the handheld computing landscape

3. “I have a stream”: 2009 has seen the emergence from the shadows of a number of lifestreams – with Tumblr, Friendfeed (recently bought by Faceboook) and Posterous making the most noise. Technically, Posterous has moved the lifestream on from being an aggregator of social content, to a syndicator as well – which is where the true potential of these services can be seen. As such, 2010 will see more and more ‘aggregator/syndicator’ apps appearing, and more and more people using them. Updating Posterous can automatically update your Twitter account, Facebook profile, blog, Flickr profile and more. It’s quick, easy, and simple. You can even just send it an email and the content appears everywhere. As people develop more social media identities they need a place to keep them. Having to access dozens of websites, desktop apps or even phone apps to keep things up-to-date is a massive hassle. Posterous and its ilk are already successfully catering for a need that will grow exponentially in 2010.
4. Augmented reality becomes a reality: We love augmented reality (AR) at Manifest. There are obviously amazing benefits it can bring, but our main reason for loving it is it feels like something from Back to the Future II. And if you haven’t seen the Google Goggles video already you’re in for a treat. AR has arrived quicker than expected really, and the pace of development looks set to continue. Bionic Eye and Tube Deluxe are the AR apps in my iPhone arsenal, but the opportunities for brands are there for all to see. Imagine a gym where you look at a machine and are given a tutorial, for example, or pointing your iPhone app at a packet of crisps to get a calorie count/CO2 impact/price comparison.
   

   Augmented Reality (AR) is not only like living in Back to the Future II - it actually works

5. Wave says hello: Google Wave is here already. But not really. In 2010 we expect it to start making a big impact, although a mass switchover from email is pie in the sky yet. Wave has loads of benefits for businesses and collaborators, but we’ve not seen them yet because most of us don’t have any contacts on there. In 2010, the early adopters will get to grips with what promises to change the way we communicate online. If this post were a wave, for instance, you could comment on each prediction underneath the actual  paragraph you’re commenting on. I could then ‘rewind’ the post to see how the comments have been added over time, and the final Wave would be a collaborative effort – not just my work. It’s really pretty cool – and in 2010 we’ll start to see why. Hopefully we’ll all get some more invitations as well.
   

   In 2009 - we were all waving with ourselves. 2010 will see wave unleashed.

6. 

   Twitter already has the space to add contextual ads

   Adding context to Twitter: We predict contextual advertising will finally make its way onto Twitter in 2010. This year saw the introduction of where the ads will likely run – in the top right of the page as pictured – so they won’t be invasive if they do arrive. By making ads relevant to the twitterstream they won’t just relate to an individual, but to their precise activities that day. Everyone keeps talking about ‘how twitter will make money’ but there are so many ways they can make it without affecting the service, I think we’ll see people get bored of that question as Twitter continues to thrive.

7. Paying won’t pay: Murdoch’s idea that online content should be paid for will be proved unworkable. At least in the UK. As long as the BBC exists, nobody will be able to charge their UK readership successfully – which to be honest, is great. A lot of people talk about not wanting to pay the license fee to fund the 25th series of 2 pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps – but they forget the money goes to genuinely pioneering online resources such as iPlayer. There are plenty of ways for media to monetize their content (such as affiliate links and freemium content privileges) but so far it’s not worked – but nor will making people pay for something they can get for free elsewhere. The Huffington Post only flourished because newspapers began charging for their online content, don’t forget. We predict many publishers will start charging, people will stop using, then many publishers will stop charging.
   

   Paying for content is about as popular as Gordon Brown

8. Social media agencies will struggle: We’ve said already on this blog that dedicated social media gencies shouldn’t exist, and in 2010 we predict that unfortunately the dedicated social media agency will begin to struggle and we’ll see the launch of new dedicated agencies slowing. This is because they’ll be competing with PR and marketing agencies increasingly able to match their expertise in social media, whilst coupling it with skills across the broader media mix. Ooh, we’re getting a bit controversial now.
9. Not so Flash now: Okay – this one is from our new media nerd guru Mike. He says that we’re going to see JavaScript frameworks begin to do much more of the complex web tasks which had previously relied on software, such as Adobe Flash and Director, as well as Microsoft Silverlight. “it’s to do with the continued development of JavaScript frameworks.” he says, “For example, the Manifest site only uses Flash to render video, as it is impossible to do this cross-browser using HTML. A couple of years ago simple animation and dynamic page elements would have been produced in Flash, however as popular JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery, MooTools and Scriptaculous continue to grow in terms of their development communities, I think we will begin to see more and more complex animation and dynamic content produced using the browser to render this rather than software (Flash player/Shockwave/Microsoft Silverlight).” Make any sense to you? Nah, me either. But it’s in at number 9 because Mike generally knows what he’s talking about.
10. Fonts for the memories: Now for some designery predictions from Martin in the creative studio. According to the Chinese, 2009 was the year of the Ox, but for Manifest, it was the year of Helvetica. We predict that 2010 will be the year of…. Helvetica. Again. Cos it always is. But maybe things will change. We think TheSans, Kievet, DIN fonts will probably pop up more next year (DIN has been the best seller at Fontshop 3 years running, so we’re not exactly out on a limb here). Oh, and we predict there will be more and more websafe fonts used for logotypes, following IKEA’s recent switch to Verdana from Futura. If you ask us, it’s not a good example to follow – it’s just a bit lazy.
    

    Could Helvetica's reign be over? Nah. Probably not.

Okay – so that’s our ten for 2010. What do you think? Don’t be shy – let us know if you think we’re talking nonsense – or if there’s something we’ve missed (although be fair, we were restricted to ten).

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.