Apple's new iPhone.
Someone’s in trouble. Picture yourself being trusted to test the new iPhone. Then you head to a bar in Redwood City, get ham-boned and forget your phone. Whoops. What’s the worst that could happen?
Gizmodo getting their hands on it would probably rank high among the worst-case scenarios for Steve Jobs. Somebody’s in trouble.
Complete with secretive X's and such.
There are several new features, mainly regarding design — it’s now squared instead of curved — and the camera, volume control, etc.
From Gizmodo (read the whole article with more pics here):
What’s new
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
What’s changed
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
Designers: 45 Rules for Creating a Logo
45 Rules for Creating a Logo (click picture for link to entire list)
Design is a bit like fashion, going through cycles where a particular style or ethos dominates for a time.
Check out Scott Hansen’s work as ISO50 for retro-organic, combining warmth with modernism (Hansen also records music as Tycho, which sound like the audio equivalent of his design — it’s worth a listen).
Hansen's work as ISO50.
Then there’s corporate America. Here are some logos from the 80′s and 90′s:
Notice any similarities? Do these adhere to the 45 rules?
Compare those to corporate logos of today:
Is it more important to stand out or fit in?
When it comes to rules for good design, it can helpful for guiding the process and making logo use effective and efficient (especially for the many uses of a logo in digital form). But, do rules for design kill innovation? And aren’t they fluid? 20-30 year-olds probably recognize the AT&T logo circa the 80′s and 90′s as distinct from the current one. Same goes for UPS.
AT&T and UPS: Old vs. New
Goodlogo.com is, well, a good logo site for comparing corporate design trends. Check it out. What do you think about logo design and these 45 rules (or should we say: suggestions)?