Fernando Lins _fernandolins.com_ [ +55 11 81750605 ]

Wideasleep's Fairway

Wideasleep just released Fairway, 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.

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.

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.

Branding and Marketing done wrong in the Mac software world

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.

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.

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!

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.

If they really like one product, they might buy the other ones just to see if they're the same quality. They will recommend your company's site 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.

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 yourbrilliantcompany.com/thebrilliantapp for example, so that users bookmark it and create a relationship to the brand.

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 need 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".

Looking for a job in Montréal

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 Portfolio here, but I really recommend that you check out my Flickr stream, where I post my experiments, personal illustrations and photography — which will all be in the new portfolio site coming in September ;)

My e-mail, as you know, services at devixdesign dot com .

Portfolio update

I have updated my portfolio with recent works. A lot of stuff to come in September, including a brand new site.

I'm Back (With News)

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) DNB Sets.de website. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Cheers!

Testing my iPod touch blogging script

So, today while at starbucks I thought how cool it would be if I could use the iPod touch to blog from anywhere. But instead of using a web interface, which is not available all the time due to the lack of wifi spots in this city, and the fact that I usually have the best post ideas in the subway, I would instead write the posts to Notes.app, email them to myself, and then a Mail applescript would post it for me when I get online on the iPod the next time. Since I have some experience with AppleScript, I did this fairly easily by using cURL HTTP Post ( curl -d arguments post-URL ) and then also using cURL I added twitter support : my followers are notified that a new post is up. This is probably becoming a new project all by itself, so stay tuned :) Fernando Lins Sent from my iPod touch

A redesign / new project is coming!

I've been really busy for the last 7 months or so. What's happened in these seven months? Well, I joined a major company which I can't name right now, got myself two really big clients, celebrated one year and 5 months in a marvelous relationship, bought myself an iPod touch, started developing iPhone OS software/web apps and gained about 2kg. In sum, I've had no time to keep this blog interesting or pretty.

That is about to end, though! This weekend I'll start working on a new blog. I'm going to rewrite my blog engine so it is compatible with iPod touch/iPhone and I will probably make it a little bit more like Tumblr in the sense that you'll be able to post quick stuff like my "Bits And Pieces" category with no effort, specially from your iPhone or iTouch - and in that aspect it'll be pretty much like Twittering something too.

I will surely work on Twitter integration, so your "Bits And Pieces" posts can go directly to your Twitter timeline, and so your friends can choose to keep up to your cool links through RSS or by following you on Twitter. Whichever they like best.

And, I might add a small picture gallery to the package, but nothing complex. Pretty much just an interface with which you can control what pictures you want on that post, by using smart links. This is the format I'm considering:

Picture(ID:0001);

Therefore the CMS would fetch the image whose ID is 0001 (from the list of images you have previously uploaded) and display it on the blog post.

If you have any requests for this or if you're interested in helping, please let me know. By the way this will be an Open Source project, so don't expect profits.

TinyPlanet and Knapsack

TinyPlanet Software just launched their new site and first software, Knapsack, that will help you create, plan, organize and have fun in your trips around the world.

I was responsible for the company branding, website design, icon design and some of the software's UI. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

PLATINUM

Cover art for an upcoming project

I haven't blogged in a while, so it's time for a small update

For the past couple of months I have been extremely busy taking care of client's projects, and pratically no personal project whatsoever. I am tired and feeling lonely, but I can't complain, I am working with great people, amazing projects, and doing what I like.

NDAs keep me from telling you much about what I am doing. Unfortunately one of the coolest projects won't be revealed on this site until late July 2008! A shame, I know, but until then there will be plenty cool stuff to see.

Also, some things happened here and there, and I'm looking for a full-time or part-time job in Montreal, Canada. If you or someone you know in Canada needs an experienced graphic and/or interface designer, please let me know ASAP.

Other than that life is fine, work is great, love is perfect. See you around...

FernandoLins.com V4 - Prism

New site is up with updated form and content. Visit it!

Why self-taught designers can't stand college - and how to avoid killing yourself two years through

I'm about to finish the 4th semester in my Graphic Design major. Boy oh boy I wish it was the last, but I still have another 4 to go. Half-way through and I feel like it should end now. I've come to realize that instead of improving my skills and learning new things, for the most part I'm just repeating all of the work I've done in the past four years. What is worse, not only I already knew how to do all the stuff they "taught" me in college, but I actually had to spend time doing them all over again.

Another thing that makes me really frustated is that students don't research. They don't know what's cool, fresh, old, classic, terrible and great in graphic design, photography, typography, fashion, etc. To them, the coolest thing ever is whatever is on MTV. They can't name 5 designers but the ones we've learned about in History of Art and History of Design classes. And I will not even mention the quiality of their projects, it's a shame.

I'm starting to feel like life has been a much better teacher for me than school would ever be. There is no comparison between making a poster for a project class, and one for a client. The client will ask you to change things hundreds of times, or to follow a certain style or branding guide, they'll say it sucks if they need to, and they will love you if you do original, clever work.

Right now I feel like I'm waisting time doing all of these college projects when I could be really finishing all the client jobs with deadlines up to my forehead. This is why I can't stand college anymore : It's just like going back in time, doing all your work again, and not getting paid, but instead paying for it.

The how not to kill yourself part...

You could see it all as a "revision". You're reminding yourself how to do this and that, maybe you forgot the size of a business card, or what are the printing methods, or the color theory altogether - and if you did forget any of those, you're not really working, are you?

You could just ignore the fact you're not learning anything and see it as a bunch of new clients for whom you work for free. Charity work or whatever. That won't make your stress level lower, no, sorry.

Finally, you can just think of this as rehab. You've been a bad, bad, designer, addicted to starting logos on Corel (!!!) before sketching ideas on paper, you used Flash to make vector illustrations, and your drawing skills are those of a 2 year old child! - Hey, you're a webdesigner!

Life is great when you're in college.

Phone Journal

I was responsible for re-designing the icons and doing a little bit of interface design for Joe Goh's Phone Journal software. It allows you to archive, print and manage SMS and MMS messages on your Palm Treo in a fun and easy way, check it out!.

Sometimes there's no escape

I work as a freelance interface designer for quite a few companies, some small companies, some big ones too, but in the end they're all just as important to me. Most of the work I do, interface-wise is to design (as in make a project for) and execute (as in, make all the graphics) for Mac OS X software. For that, I have to keep up with the latest technologies, which right now means : Leopard.

Until the 26th, due to the NDA set upon theirs and third-party developers (read: my clients), I had to rely on whatever image there was on their site or go around the web to know exactly how things looked. I just can't pay for a premium Apple Developer Connection membership, specially for the fact I'm no developer. I spent many, many nights hacking screenshots I'd find on the web so I could have some idea if the icons I was creating had enough contrast for the new toolbar texture, or if some widget would fit the new OS look, and so on.

Leopard should have arrived in Brazil on the 26th, as all over the world. But, thanks to some terrible logistics and planning from Apple Brazil's part, only today stores announced when Mac OS 10.5 will be available. Friggin' November 16th. Yes. Over two weeks after the rest of the world. So, for that, thank you very much Apple Brasil.

Now, I have some clients projects that pretty much require me to have Leopard, not only to test the icons and to get used to the new technology, or features if you prefer, that Leopard's got, but also so I can test the software and see if all this work I've been doing pretty much blind actually has the impact I was going for.

Since I really can't wait until the 16th, I had to call a friend who got his copy shipped from an american store on the launch day, and will arrive tomorrow, to borrow me a copy of Leopard that I can install until my own copy, which I just reserved, arrives on the 16th or so.

Some might say it's piracy, I say it's despair. I really have no choice at this point, and it's a shame Apple is doing nothing to make this faster. So here I am, again, one step behind, delaying clients projects and release dates, because someone forgot to hire a few more trucks.

Evil Pumpkin Icons

This is a little fun project. Inside the zip archive you'll find high and low resolution PNGs, a Mac OS X ICNS icon file and a little surprise. I hope this will make your computer spooky enough in time for Halloween! Enjoy!

BusySync Icon Design

BusyMac releases BusySync 1.0 for Mac OS X. I designed the application icon, which you can see below. More on this project coming soon.