.GOV.UK

On the 16th of April it was announced that the new .gov.uk website has won the prestigious Design of the Year Award ‘The Oscars of the design world” and I can see why.

Compared to the old design (namely directgov) it’s clear and concise, layout is easy to navigate and dealing with things like taxes, driving license renewals and visa applications has become less like a chore. Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic reiterates stating the site “makes life better for millions of people coping with the everyday chores, from getting a new passport, to paying their taxes”.

The old Directgov design. direct2

The style is reminiscent of the new Windows 8 interface style, which seems to be popular among many new web designs.

Judges voted for the .gov.uk website above numerous categories including fashion and architecture for its “well thought out, yet understated design” whilst Prime Minister David Cameron said it enhanced “the modern relationship between the public and government”.

You can go view the design and other shortlisted designs at the Design Museum in London until the 7 July.

Some unique stuff

The Goverdose website, an online collective of digital designers, is one of the most unique website I’ve come across in a long time.

goverdose4
I LOVE the red, hover over navigation leaving a cut out of the background and the diagonal effect when you hover over images. The only thing is the seemingly intentional flicker in the hover effect, not so keen on this.

If you’re interested in UI design, check it out.

Make your mark

I’ve been feeling a little homesick for South Africa lately so I thought I would share some of the talent South Africa has to offer.

MARK is a branding firm in Cape Town offering some stunning mark making services.

First of, I love this beautiful poster they’ve designed to give a visual insight into their partnership.

“So that’s what we do, here at Mark. We think, we strategise, we create, we design – with the single-minded ambition of making your brand as famous as it can be.” - MARK

Bongue is a contemporary Angolan clothes label. Mark have used an antelope (the Palanca and country’s national symbol) as the mark – bold, beautiful and strong.

Mark designed the Posters and DVD cover for Thembi, a powerful documentary of one women living with HIV and AIDS. The logo was inspired by Thembi’s handwriting, taken from her diary entries.

Cape Structural Steel and Engineering is a hardworking logo. The colours black and white to represent practicality, the typography geometric and structured to mirror the companies no fills no fuss attitude.

Last but not least, some more beautiful branding by Mark for 5 rooms, an opulent fine dining experience.

The Pitchbox website

Chichester based, freelance web and graphic designer Oli Lisher has designed new branding, a web app and a responsive website for Pitchbox, a start up company based in San Francisco.

Oli has created an icon that translated into an intricate pattern. He has reused elements of the pattern around the website and combined this with some unique illustrations. A great modern look for a really interesting company, check it out here

Some wise words on the Design Process

I stumbled upon these wise words by Mike Kus a little late but everyone who works in design should read this

“The truth is

There is no such thing as a textbook design process. Different projects require different approaches and different designers have different approaches. So, don’t ever think you’re doing it wrong or that you should really be following the rules that somebody else set out. If it works for you, then that’s fine.

The moral of the story

Design processes are interesting and we can learn a lot from each other by sharing them, but it’s really the outcome that matters. So, when it comes to finding a design process that works, I do it my way and you should do it yours.”

- Mike Kus

A small selection of awesome looking company websites

http://dietaikonauten.com/

http://www.welikesmall.com/

http://whois.wildlife.la/

http://www.pixelpillow.nl/

The (super inspirational) work of Mike Kus

I just stumbled among the inspirational work of Mike Kus (after realising I was already following him on twitter but never actually looked at his work – what?!) and just had to share. His web design and illustration work (his photography is also pretty decent) is just stunning and has left me with some serious design envy.

Just love the illustrations, colours and big square animated boxes on Mike’s Future Insight Redesign:

Some more beautifully animated illustrations, a must see:

His illustration work also carries over into print, just love these slightly dark, olympic inspired posters:

Logo Web Play

For the love of all things design > branding > logos > web