Numiko Visit

Numiko Visit 

I enjoyed this talk a lot and took a lot from it, learning from one of last years graduates who has got a job with the company through past work placement has give me confidence in the transition from college to the creative industry. 

They're a Leeds based agency who specialize in digital & web design starting out 14 years ago with a main focus on animation work, 3D and flash work. 

Their first big break was with BBC in 2002 and have worked with huge organizations since and work on a lot of Broadcast work, Not-For-Profit (Charity), Government and Educational work. With the majority of big clients in London there doing extremely well. 

Main points I gathered from the talk

The talk helped me understand were web is going and the growing capabilities of it and potential influence it has over the creative industry. It seems to me like its going in quite a digital directions but when the concept allows print based media is still as alive as ever due to its tactile qualities and potential for more creative development in materials and process's. 

Iconography is an important aspect of web & digital design and the ideal icon image would communicate its intentions in the simplest way. 

Consider load times when creating websites for other devices, replace photograph elements with something more stripped down like vector line art. 

Use the target audience's psychology to influence the design process, let them have influence over the website aesthetic and concept through there feedback. A personal point I gained from this is that creating a customizable website that suits them would be a consideration but not sure how realistic this would be for THIS brief. 

Numiko Introduced me to responsive websites, websites that work across a range of devices with all elements of the site remaining consistent in proportion and layout. One aspect of this is the form of stacking, wich works well on narrow devices. Shown here in there design council website, it all narrows down and centralizes. 

Create a different grid system/screen size for each device to understand the guidelines to work within to create balance in the layouts and create fluid transformation between devices and different screen sizes. 

Consider the icons, images and typography when creating websites so the proportions remain fluid across all devices. 

To work across 2 devices a good starting point when creating websites is for every web page created create a grid system for all devices before moving onto the next web page. 

If something doesn't need to be there get rid of it, keep all elements on a page concise. Don't have any visuals that are not required. 

Understand the brand identity fully before creating a digital piece of design for them, consider the ethics, history, services, everything that make them up at current needs to be considered when producing work for them.

Grids on website design is ever important as it is for successful editorial and layout design to create balance and well communicated visuals and typography while also making an easy to navigate and use website. 

When designing a responsive site its good to start with the largest potential output most commonly a desktop screen before looking into how it works on smaller devices. 

When creating grids think about there use, a grid can be created for icon systems to keep them geometric, symmetrical and accurate as well as been used for typical layout design be it print based or digital based.

A grid can be created from commonly known grids and cannons or can be influenced by something more conceptually relevant. 

On the design for Europe project they:

Took the european flag.

Took a star from this flag.

Analyzed the angles and lines within this star and created a grid system from these that allowed them to create versatile shapes that they then included a combination of colors swatched from european countries flag to create abstract shapes that presented unity within nations. A very clever concept.

This same grid was then used to create the icons for the website.