Many rumors, mockups and concepts later, I think I have finally found an iWatch concept that I love! Creation of the Jivaldi team, this beauty features a flexible interface. Wearable technology is the future and this one is a step in that direction. What do you think?
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Love This iWatch! was originally posted on Yanko Design)
The new Apple commercial has drawn a lot of flack for its insensitive portrayal of interaction between people and its products. For a twisted moment, the focus has shifted from the human experience to the gadget experience. The disconnect of emotions is creepy and alarming! Close on heels is the news that a new iPhone may be out in September, so till that time let’s absorb this new take on the Jesus-phone! Apple iPhone 6, Really!
Designer: Pritesh Chavan
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Apple iPhone 6, Really! was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Amidst many iWatch and iPhone 5S / iPhone 6 rumors, we have here the iCamera Concept. A total figment of creative imagination that sparks a debate amongst Apple Fanboys and girls! Straightforward and intuitive, I like what I see and think of it as a well inspired idea. What do you think?
This article by Jürgen Siebert was first posted on June 17, 2013 to the German Fontblog.de. The English translation for Typographica.org is by Maurice Meilleur.
There was no shortage of long-distance diagnoses of the typography in Apple’s recently presented mobile interface, iOS 7. The live-streaming keynote address from the WWDC developer’s conference last Monday hadn’t even started before the first typophiles started sharing their concerns on Twitter. The day before the announcement, our friend Stephen Coles was already deeply worried about the light weight of Helvetica on the display banners hanging at the WWDC venue in San Francisco:
I should remind the early birds who were already chirping during the keynote:
that it will take at least another four months for the final version of iOS 7 to reach the market
that you can’t judge the effectiveness of a typeface in a dynamic OS from videos or screenshots
that no one commenting on the keynote said a word about iOS’s underlying font technology, which has obviously changed.
People did calm down over the subsequent days of the week-long conference. This was largely because of the presentations from Apple’s engineers devoted to ways the OS would handle fonts, in which they revealed the first details of the new technology.
No, text and words aren’t sinking ships in iOS 7. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
In his session, Ian Baird, the person in Cupertino responsible for how Apple’s mobile products handle text, showed off what he called the “coolest feature in iOS 7”: Text Kit. Behind this name is a new API (application programming interface) for developers of apps in which text plays a critical role. Text Kit is built over Core Text, a sophisticated Unicode layout engine with a lot of power, the potential of which unfortunately hasn’t been very easy to tap in the past. But now, no one needs to struggle with it, because Text Kit is there to act as an interpreter.
Text Kit is a fast, modern layout- and text-rendering engine, easy to maintain through settings integrated into the User Interface Kit. Those settings give developers full control over all Core Text functions, so they can choose very precisely how text will behave in all user interface elements. To make that possible, Apple has revised UITextView, UITextLabel, and UILabel. The good news: this means the seamless integration of animation and text (the same principle behind UICollectionView and UITableView) for the first time ever in the history of iOS. The bad news: this means existing text-heavy apps will have to be redeveloped in order to support all these nifty new features.
Apple has rebuilt the text layout architecture in iOS 7, allowing developers to build control over the behavior of text and fonts into the user interfaces of their apps, with a level of dynamic freedom unheard-of before.
So what do all these new options mean, practically speaking? Developers can now drop long-form texts into reader-friendly, attractive layouts, with multiple columns and with image layers that aren’t chained to the grid. There are exciting new possibilities hiding behind the labels “Interactive Text Color”, “Text Folding”, and “Custom Truncation”. So, for example, it will soon be possible while composing in iOS to have the color of text change if the app recognizes a specific dynamic element (a hashtag, a Twitter account name, or the like). Or, we can trim longer texts into previews without being limited to options like before/after/middle; developers can define those options however they want.
With just a few lines of code, developers can display the time using presentable typography, with proportionally-spaced figures and the correct hh:mm divider.
Typographic aesthetes will be happy to learn that support for kerning and ligatures (Apple calls these macros “font descriptors”) will be turned on throughout iOS 7, effortlessly accessible even over very advanced visual effects like the deceptively real-looking handmade paper texture. But don’t worry: the magical letterpress look is, for now, the only remaining skeumorphism that has survived the update, and that only in the Notes app. Think of it as an example of something that can be turned off in the future, something developers will have the right to use, or not, as they wish.
But the hottest typographic number in iOS 7 is Dynamic Type. As far as I know, Apple’s mobile products will be the first electronic devices that will by default consider a quality of type that hasn’t been given so much attention since the age of letterpress. That’s right: we’re talking about an operating system, not an application or a layout job. It’s true, optical sizes were tried in photosetting and desktop publishing—but they weren’t really automatic, and some of the attempts turned out to be blind alleys (like Adobe Multiple Masters). And yes, there are any number of displays in industry products that use different ‘grades’ of text for smaller and larger settings. But optical sizing in iOS builds on these earlier attempts and offers astonishing possibilities.
The Dynamic Type waterfall in iOS 7 (middle) lets developers specify which fonts to use at each font size. This allows them to select heavier weights when type is small, for example. Compare this to the example on the left which demonstrates a simple decrease in size of the headline weight only, and the one on the right which shows just the text font getting larger. The letterspacing shown here isn’t perfect, but an app developer could always embed a different font family, one with a wider spaced variant for the text size. Update: It appears Dynamic Text does not work with custom embedded fonts like we hoped.
Thanks to Dynamic Type, users can now use sliders (with seven stops, found under Settings > General > Text Size) to adjust the text size in every app according to their own taste. And in case the largest size isn’t large enough, those with impaired vision can find under Settings > General > Accessibility a way to turn Dynamic Type up to its maximum size, options to “improve legibility” (which sets the text over a light gradient without changing its size), and optimize the background contrast.
Conclusion: When iOS is ready to be released in a few months, the operating system itself may not offer the best typography (using Neue Helvetica). But the OS’s underlying text layout and rendering technologies offer Apple and developers everything they need to conjure up dynamic and readable text on the Retina Display in ways they’ve never been able to before.
Interview: German industrial designer Richard Sapper has launched a new website chronicling his work dating back to the 1950s. In an interview looking back on his career he tells Dezeen how he turned down the chance to work at Apple, how design has been “degraded” by commercialism and how 3D printing could help solve unemployment (+ slideshow).
Speaking from his home in Milan, Sapper, 81, recounts how Steve Jobs once tried to lure him to work for Apple, “but the circumstances weren’t right because I didn’t want to move to California and I had very interesting work here that I didn’t want to abandon.”
Tizio desk lamp, Artemide, 1972: photograph by Serge Libiszewski
When asked if he regretted turning Jobs down he said: “Sure I regret it – the man who then did it [Jonathan Ive] makes $30 million a year!”
TS 502 radio, Brionvega, 1963: photograph by Serge Libiszewski
In a career spanning almost 60 years, Sapper has designed iconic products including the Tizio lamp, the ThinkPad range of laptops for IBM and the 9091 whistling kettle for Alessi.
Grillo Telephone, Siemens Italtel, 1965: photograph by Roberto Zabban
Sapper says that he admires the work of Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs at Apple, citing the company as an exception in an industry he feels has been “degraded” by an overriding focus on profit. “If a company asks me to design something, the first thing I hear is how much money they’re making, how much money they want to make, and I’m expected to produce the difference.”
9090 espresso coffee maker, Alessi, 1978: photograph by Aldo Ballo
Richard Sapper was born in 1932 and was first employed as a stylist with Daimler Benz in Stuttgart. He founded his own studio in Milan in 1959 and worked as a consultant for many of Italy’s leading companies, including Brionvega, Fiat and Pirelli.
ThinkPad 701, IBM, 1996: photograph by Aldo Ballo
He is renowned for his work with technology brands, including IBM, for whom he has been chief industrial design consultant since 1980.
Algol portable TV set 3rd edition (first designed with Marco Zanuso), Brionvega, 1985: photograph by Aldo Ballo
When asked about 3D printing and its impact on the design industry, Sapper describes it as “a huge revolution,” and adds, “it is revolution that allows anyone who has such a machine the possibility to produce something that they have invented themselves. This can help to reduce the problem of unemployment because people are able to produce something without having to be employed.”
9091 kettle, Alessi, 1983: photograph by Aldo Ballo
Despite his prodigious career, Sapper says he launched a new website, designed by London studio Julia, because “I’ve been working in design for over 50 years and most people still don’t know my work.”
Sapper XYZ monitor arm system, Knoll, 2012: photograph by Jens Mortensen for Knoll
Here’s a transcript of Richard Sapper talking with Alyn Griffiths from Dezeen:
Alyn Griffiths: Your website documents a career going back all the way to the 1950s. How has design changed in that time?
Richard Sapper: There have been enormous changes. When I was young and starting out, industrial designers all worked for somebody who owned a company. Some of those company owners wanted to make good-looking things because there is pleasure associated with good forms. In many ways these people were idealists. They didn’t make more money because they made a beautiful design. Today, it seems to me that money is the only reason to make design.
If a company asks me to design something, the first thing I hear is how much money they’re making, how much money they want to make, and I’m expected to produce the difference. It is a completely different relationship and it isn’t as much fun to work in such a relationship. From that point of view, my profession has degraded.
Alyn Griffiths: So do you think there are too many products and too many designers today?
Richard Sapper: There are certainly too many products and too many designers, and the idea behind design has changed. Today it’s all [about] money. Back then it was just an interest in producing something beautiful. And this is very similar to the interest a designer has in making a design. They want to do something beautiful. If you find a manufacturer who has the same interests then it is easy to work together. Today, most of my clients are so big that there is no one person who is responsible for the appearance of the product.
Apple has been a real exception because it was a company that, up until last year, still worked as my old clients used to work. They would come and see what I do, they would tell me their opinions and it was just [Steve] Jobs who did that. He absolutely wanted to make beautiful products.
Alyn Griffiths: You never worked for Apple did you?
Richard Sapper: Jobs once wanted to hire me to do the design of Apple [computers] but the circumstances weren’t right because I didn’t want to move to California and I had very interesting work here that I didn’t want to abandon. Also, at that time Apple was not a great company, it was just a small computer company. They were doing interesting things so I was very interested, of course, but I had an exclusivity contract with IBM.
Alyn Griffiths: Do you regret it at all?
Richard Sapper: Sure I regret it – the man who then did it makes $30 million a year! [Laughs] so how can you not regret it?
Alyn Griffiths: How have technologies like 3D printing changed the processes of designing and manufacturing?
Richard Sapper: 3D printing is changing not only the way design is made – that has already happened – but it is also changing the way things are produced. In a few years, many things that are now produced in big factories will just be done at home.
Alyn Griffiths: Do you think that’s a good thing?
Richard Sapper: Yes, I think so. It’s a huge revolution, and it is revolution that allows anyone who has such a machine the possibility to produce something that they have invented themselves. This can help to reduce the problem of unemployment because people are able to produce something without having to be employed.
Alyn Griffiths: Do you not worry that the quality of design will deteriorate?
Richard Sapper: I think it has already deteriorated! [Laughs] I’m always asked, ‘Was there more good design when you were young, or is there more good design design now?’ My answer is that there is more good design now, but really good design was rare when I started and is still rare now.
Alyn Griffiths: Are there any designers working today who you admire?
Richard Sapper: Of course, I admire Jonathan Ive’s work very much. But you mustn’t forget the contribution of Steve Jobs because they worked so closely together.
Alyn Griffiths: What makes a good design for you?
Richard Sapper: It has to transmit a message to whomever is looking at it, or who has it in their hand. What message is another question, but it has to tell them something.
Alyn Griffiths: What you are currently working on?
I’m currently working on several things; one is an LED ceiling lamp to illuminate a whole room, I’m working on a system to support computer monitors for Knoll, which is a big project that I have been working on for five years. I’m also working on computers for Lenovo and I’m a consultant for IBM, so I have stuff to do!
1. Mind Over Water In “Eunoia,” NYC-based artist Lisa Park wears an EEG sensor to measure her brain activity and translates that into soundwaves that vibrate five dishes of water (each representing a different emotion)—thus allowing…
News: Dezeen has now been used in product demonstrations at three consecutive presentations by software giant Apple.
Dezeen tab was shown in a scrolling list of Safari tabs as part of the new iOS 7 interface, which was revealed during Apple‘s annual keynote speech at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco yesterday.
Our homepage was first used by Apple for the iPhone 5 launch in September last year and also made an appearance in the movie demonstrating the new product.
As expected, the new operating system unveiled today at Apple‘s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco features uncluttered interfaces and marks a distinct shift away from imitating physical materials like leather and wood, bringing the brand’s software more in line with the pure and minimal style that Ive famously developed for its hardware. “We see iOS 7 as defining a important new direction, and in a way a new beginning,” said Ive in a movie shown at the launch.
“I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency,” he continued. “True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation; it’s about bringing order to complexity.”
The team redesigned all the icons, stripped back typography and implemented a new colour palette
Distinct translucent layers of content are meant to help users maintain a sense of context while moving through the interface and a new “multitasking” feature means users can scroll between application windows without going back to the home screen.
“These planes combined with new approaches to animation and motion create a sense of depth and vitality,” says Ive, adding that just changing the desktop picture affects the look and feel across the entire system.
Transparent layers “create a sense of depth,” says Ive
The team has redesigned all the icons, refined and pared back the typography, and implemented a new colour palette. “In many ways we tried to create an interface that is unobtrusive and deferential, one where the design recedes and in doing so actually elevates your content,” Ive concluded.
Anticipation over the visual overhaul has been mounting since Ive was appointed head of the new Human Interface team at Apple in October, and experts have been predicting a move towards cleaner edges and flat surfaces over the textures and faux materials that came to characterise Apple’s software design.
Apple’s previous calendar design had particularly been under fire for its stitched leather look
“Obviously they didn’t go there with the hardware so why did they go there with the software? It’s a really good question,” he said. “There’s now many companies looking at it in a way that’s quite interesting and Apple actually is a little bit behind in that area.”
“Developing a grid system allowed us to achieve a much more harmonious relationship between individual elements,” said Ive of the new icons
As far as Apple is concerned there are many ‘what ifs’ that we all would like them to answer. Example, what if Apple made a watch, what if Apple made a camera? The answer to the latter is the iLens; an imaginable innovation that is conceived as a mirror-less interchangeable lens camera for enthusiastic photographers. So if you are dangling between an amateur and professional photographer, this camera is for you!
Concept explanation:
Dual lens system on the iLens provides you with an option to click with the 50mm prime lens on the main device. Magnetically attachable zoom and telephoto lens give you more dynamic photography options. The magnetically attachable lens sits on top of the primary device lens, which is the 50mm prime lens. The lens and the device communicate to each other via NFC Standard. Gesture sensitive lens casing provide with lens zoom and focus manipulation. Also, an integrated ring type flash unit around the lens casing avoids any shadow cast by the lens. This makes the iLens a powerful camera with a full size image sensor that is genuinely pocket-able. The cubical design for the lens casing, instead of the traditional and a much familiar cylindrical design, was taken into consideration for ease of storage. As DSLR lens do roll away, if handled carelessly. Unlike a DSLR, the image sensor is sealed behind the 50mm prime lens, so there is no chance of sensor dust damage during lens changes. A scratch resistant UV filter tops the lens, so there is no need for a lens cap.
Afin de célébrer le retour de la célèbre série TV « Mad Men », les équipes du site Shutterstock ont imaginé les équivalences entre notre époque et celle de la série. Un phénomène et un style graphique décrypté à travers plusieurs éléments, objets et personnages, le tout dans une comparaison entre les années 1960 et 2013.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
No, text and words aren’t sinking ships in iOS 7.
