http://www.devixdesign.com 2008-11-20 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=270 <a href="http://davethedesigner.net/booktut/index.html">Amazing tutorial</a> by <a href="http://davethedesigner.net/">David Foster</a> teaches you how to make your own book - from cutting the sheets, to sewing, gluing, making a cover for it and everything else. 2008-11-06 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=269 ... by <a href="http://www.attik.com/#/menu-featured/scionbrand?expanded=true">Attik</a> (new site!) 2008-11-04 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=268 All around amazing artist and UI designer and e-friend <a href="http://www.louiemantia.com">Louie Mantia</a> has joined the <a href="http://www.iconfactory.com">Icon Factory</a> team! IMHO, a much needed addition. Go Louie, make us a pretty Twitterrific, teach 'em some UI lessons :] All the happiness to Louie \o/ 2008-11-03 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=267 launched <a href="http://www.michaelpaulyoung.com/">a personal website and portfolio archive</a> featuring around 10 years of excellent graphic work he's done in the last decade or so. Please check it out, die of envy, be inspired. 2008-10-19 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=266 <a href="http://www.wideasleep.com">Wideasleep</a> just released <a href="http://www.wideasleep.com/products/fairway/">Fairway</a>, an iPhone and iPod touch software that acts like your virtual caddy, helping you to choose golf clubs and manage your golf clubs bags any time you play. </p> <p> I was responsible for designing the interface for this software, icon and graphics. I'll be adding Fairway to my portfolio soon so you can look at the creation process in detail. Meanwhile, visit the App Store and check it out. </p> <p> Right now (Sept. 23rd 2008) Wideasleep is having a sale on Fairway, it's your chance to get a great software for a very low price, take a look at the website to learn more. 2008-09-23 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=265 <a href="http://iwantnewmacbookpros.com/">Don't you want them too?</a> 2008-09-19 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=264 I am now officially 22 years old :) Please send all gifts by friday night, 'cause I'm going to the beach on saturday, tee-hee! </p> <p> 2008-09-04 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=263 For a while now a certain marketing practice has become very common in the Mac software world : registering MyApp.com domains to promote software and give them the spotlight. This idea behind this is that it will be easier for users to remember the software's website, and that if they can memorize it effortlessly, they will talk about it. In the end, what you get is a single software having all the attention, or multiple software getting attention, while no connection is created between them or the brand they belong to. </p> <p> A company's greatest asset is its brand, no doubt about it. By creating a strong brand, you make, by supposition, your products and services gain the same strong qualities your brand has or vice-versa : either you create a brand that represents these great qualities your customers want on a product, or you create products that actually have those qualities and let them speak for your brand. The latter is case is the one that applies to software companies, while the first one applies to service providers — such as designers and advisers. Therefore, it is substantial that your product is connected to your brand. If it isn't, people will only know the product and forget about the company or people behind it. </p> <p> When you create a website just for one of your products, you are taking big risks here : first, you must trust that the website is clever and well executed enough to pass on the concepts you would expect people to perceive when using your software. Is it fun, is it professional, is it slacked, is it boring, is it cluttered? These attributes will be automatically attached to your brand. You might think this is a good choice in case your product is terrible and gets the worst reviews, at least your company will be safe, right? Wrong. Users are smarter than this. They will do their best to find out who did it and say bad things about it on Twitter! </p> <p> If it is successful however, it will be successful on its own — no one will remember it was made by Your Brilliant Company Inc., for you are marketing it on its own. And you will always have to introduce yourself as "Makers of That Brilliant App". In this case, users will too try to track down who did it, who's brilliant mind created this software. "Is there more?", they will ask. So do them a favor, and keep your product on your company's website. </p> <p> If they really like one product, they might buy the other ones just to see if they're the same quality. They will recommend <em>your company's site</em> to their friends, not just the link to that one app isolated on a single page. If your software isn't attractive (in terms of usefulness, quality and not just design), potential customers will leave the website to never come back. However, if it is integrated to your website where there are links to other products (there are, right?), they might find something else they like and there you have it, a new sale. </p> <p> Regarding the domains, the right think to do here is obvious. If you do get a SuperSoftwareApp.com domain, instead of making a new website for it, just append it to your current company site. Make the URL redirect to <em>yourbrilliantcompany.com/thebrilliantapp</em> for example, so that users bookmark it and create a relationship to the brand. </p> <p> Many companies nowadays still use an old but effective marketing trick and append the name of the product to the company's name, such as "Adobe Photoshop" , "MacSpeech Dictate" , "Apple tv" , "Microsoft Messenger" , and so on. But much more than a marketing trick, this is a branding necessity. There is a <strong>need</strong> to make a strong brand, because this is where all of your effort is deposited. On a little name that will be bouncing around the internet, newspaper, maybe even stock markets in the feature. And not "Makers of that cool app". 2008-08-17 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=262 Yes, it's true. I've been working as a freelance designer for about 5 years, but something's come up and I'm looking for a job in Montréal, Québec, Canada. If you know of anyone who needs an in-house graphic / interface designer there, please let me know. You can view my <a href="http://www.fernandolins.com/">Portfolio</a> here, but I really recommend that you <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/littera/">check out my Flickr stream</a>, where I post my experiments, personal illustrations and photography — which will all be in the new portfolio site coming in September ;) </p> <p> My e-mail, as you know, services at devixdesign dot com . 2008-08-15 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=261 I have updated <a href="http://www.fernandolins.com/">my portfolio</a> with recent works. A lot of stuff to come in September, including a brand new site. 2008-08-09 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=260 is a fellow Mac Themer and graphic designer, <a href="http://ligatsa.com/">visit his new website and portfolio</a>. 2008-08-08 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=259 My dear readers, I'm sorry for the "Bandwidth Exceeded" problem. I uploaded a mixed music set I recorded last month to this site's server and made it available on the (amazing) <a href="http://www.dnb-sets.de">DNB Sets.de website</a>. I wasn't expecting such an amazing response to it : the set was downloaded 120 times in a bout an hour. I guess people really liked the playlist. </p> <p> Anyway, I had no other reason to upgrade my bandwidth limits, and so it was the end of the month so I decided to wait until it came back online automatically. And so it is. </p> <p> Now on to the news. In the last few weeks (or the last month and a half) I took habit a good habit of programming. I have three little projects, and a big one coming up. I hope that they're all available for you in late October, early November. The first one will be revealed soon, it is a Mac software that integrates with an iPhone app, in a way. The second one is a client to a popular internet service, and I hope you will enjoy its features as much as I do. </p> <p> Last and not least, I am here to announce the death of Devix Design. What? Yes, it is going to end. Within a few weeks, Devix Design will be no more, as I have decided to open a company to hold all of those projects, and to provide a few different services, along with the graphic and interface design services I already do. I have not settled on the name, nor set a date for the new website launch, but I hope it is all done within a month. </p> <p> Cheers! 2008-08-01 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=258 Just a few tweaks here and there. See that, Xerox, Wacom? That's how you <a href="http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/philips_gets_a_niptuck.php">make a classic brand modern</a>. 2008-07-20 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=257 Two Vimeo videos that say a lot more than words : <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1366042">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1366923">Part 2</a>. 2008-07-19 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=256 by <a href="http://www.guiborchert.com/">Gui Borchert</a>. Scrolling is <em>not</em> fun. 2008-07-14 http://www.devixdesign.com/blog/?id=252 This is a designer I have a lot of respect for. In a very short amount of time, he's mastered the icon design art very quickly, and with some help from a friend *cough* he's starting his own already successful design business. Check out his new site at <a href="http://www.henriliriani.com">Henri Liriani . com</a>. 2008-06-19