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Timoni Grone is the senior visual designer at Scribd where she creates websites that blend responsible web practices with classic design & typographical philosophies. She also co-founded the monthly design MeetUp and work session Chromatic where Bay area designers meet to network share ideas and design challenges. It’s part of her effort to expand the reach of user-centric design and make your web experience just a little bit better. Timoni is interviewed here by Emily Goligoski.
Notes on Design: How did you get your start?
Timoni Grone: I was an English major in college but talked about art and design enough that a friend encouraged me to take an art class, and I’ve been making sites and designing for friends since 1999. I’m largely self-taught—I looked at course syllabi and taught myself design fundamentals.
My second job was as a web editor for the State Department creating mockups for sites to expand dialogue with the Arabic world. I didn’t expect that I’d ever work on security and public diplomacy, and it was eye-opening.
NoD: Wow! Not your typical design gig. Where did you go from there?
Timoni Grone: I ultimately left to work at a DC branding agency in the research sphere before moving to San Francisco, where I’d wanted to be since I was using early social media tools in Nebraska while still in college.
NoD: And in San Francisco you began working at Scribd where you are now the Senior Visual Designer and have been largely responsible for their redesign effort. What other sites that you frequent are you itching to redesign?
Timoni Grone: Twitter, no doubt about it, so that people wouldn’t have to use third party applications to have a good experience. I’d improve the leading on Facebook, but on Tumblr I wouldn’t change much beyond the implementation.
NoD: Can you expand on your comment regarding third party apps and how Twitter could improve if it did not require them? Isn’t Twitter improving because of third party apps..and is that built-in flexibility not what makes it, in part, so hugely popular?Read the rest of this entry »
Jeff Hamada is a self-described small Japanese artist working out of Vancouver, BC. He was recently selected as one of 100 artists to collaborate with Converse and Product(RED) to celebrate Converse’s 100th year anniversary.
He currently freelances as a graphic designer, and runs the hugely popular art / design site Booooooom.com. I asked Jeff a few questions about his design work, both personal and professional. How does one guy manage a hugely populate design site yet also complete very high-profile and beautiful design projects. Maybe this answers the question —
“Even if I don’t know how to do something I’ll tell people that I’m the person to get the job done because I’m just willing to spend all night learning how to do it.” — Jeff Hamada Read the rest of this entry »
Q: When I presented Marc Schiller of the Wooster Collective with your painting he immediately knew that it was your work. After visiting your Web site it became clear you’re a prolific and talented artist. What motivates you to create art and, even more intriguing, give it away by placing it on the street for people like me lucky enough to happen by?
Adam: I paint purely for the love and enjoyment I get from the feeling of creating something, be it a doodle on a piece of cardboard or a 6ft wall. After the process of creating something I lose interest in the final end product. I no longer want to see it. The egotist thrives on completing an acceptable painting. He will stand for hours looking at his own achievment. The egotist will call himself an “artist”… I just paint on stuff. The walls of my home are bare. For me art is not for hanging, but more for experiencing oneself. Read the rest of this entry »
We interviewed Mike Pandolfo at Elias Arts in SOHO, New York where he is Creative Director, Composer, General Manager. Mike is also an instructor at Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design where he teaches Music Production Using Logic. Watch Mike talk about how he broke into a career in music production.
Born in Sweden, Camilla Meijer is a London-based pattern designer specializing in wallpaper and textiles. Camilla’s technical training in Graphic Design has taken her on an unexpected, botanical path of pattern design. She elegantly draws upon her journeys through London’s greenery to relate stories of her past and present into her Camilla Meijer Design brand. Staying true to her mission to spread the beauty of nature to others, Camilla’s use of texture and color has gained her appearances in Design Week, Fashion Extras magazine, Home Décor & Furnishings, and the Essential Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom. In 2007, Camilla won the “New Designers One Year On Award” at New Designers Show in Islington, London. She is represented by textile agencies in New York, Paris, and Tokyo.
In this interview, Kerri Besse talks with Camilla about her creative print design process. From a stroll in the park to note-worthy design, she shows us that a career path less traveled can be surprisingly rewarding. Read the rest of this entry »
Renee Rupcich is the assistant art director of Men’s Vogue. Though her career has focused on graphic design and publishing (she was also senior designer at fashion/design magazine Surface), she also studied photography and worked as an assistant in photography studios in San Francisco. Lately Renee has cultivated an interest in handcrafts and knitting as well as in socially and environmentally responsible design, and she contributes to the online community DESIGN 21: Social Design Network. Read the rest of this entry »
Note: This is part 1 in an 8 part series by design instructor and NoD author Dave Holston. To view Dave’s previous entries please click here.
Design is a commodity
A few years back I attended a design management seminar in San Francisco. The seminar was held on a refurbished ferry-boat docked at Pier 3 and featured a notable design speaker. The view of the bay was fantastic, and the information presented at the session was compelling. But as I look back, the most remarkable thing about that seminar was lunch.
I had the good fortune to be seated at the same table as the speaker. Others at the table included business owners and designers from a wide variety of areas, all looking to harness the power of design. Our conversation ran the gamut from design leadership, research, ethnography and our own personal design war stories. I tried to think of an insightful question to ask the speaker, but the best I could come up with was, “So, do you have any designers on your staff?” Jeez, could I have asked a more banal question? But his answer left me speechless. “No.” he responded off-handedly, “Design is a commodity.” Read the rest of this entry »
When MoMA opened its current exhibition of George Lois’ Esquire covers last spring, the legendary ad man (“I want my MTV”, anyone?) enjoyed a second wave of fame and acclaim. As a new generation discovered the powerful and provocative images he created for Esquire between 1962-1972, even the supremely confident Lois was a little taken back by the response: “In the first month of the show, my web site got 1 million 700 000 hits. Who would have imagined that a graphic design show would have that kind of impact?” he says. But maybe it’s not surprising at all. In today’s climate of impossibly bland magazine art, Lois’ fearless statements offer a refreshing reminder that success does not always equal pandering. “I do stuff that punch you in the mouth sometimes,” he says. However, the fact that his 40-year-old covers are still considered so radical is also a little discouraging. How come not much else has happened since then? To ponder that question, and to revisit the stories behind his most iconic pictures, we sat down with the irrepressibly charming and outspoken 77-year-old native New Yorker in the beautiful West Village apartment he’s lived in for the past four decades. Read the rest of this entry »
On June 3rd, New York’s first ever Internet Week kicks off. The event is a promotional, social and educational effort that is based on the same model of openness and diversity as the Internet itself. Anyone can register an event and practically anything goes in terms of topics or theme. The week is topped off with the celebration of the Webby Awards, the popular and glamorous awards ceremony for excellent online achievements. We wanted to learn more about the people behind this initiative and decided to catch up with David-Michel Davies (no it’s not a typo, he’s half French), Executive Director of IADAS (International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences), the organization behind both the Internet Week and the Webby’s. Read the rest of this entry »
In recent years, Yves Béhar has emerged as one of the most important industrial designers on the contemporary scene. Through his San Francisco-based design and branding company fuseproject, the Swiss-born Béhar has shown that a futuristic, hi-tech approach to design can be deeply humane. The fluid forms and innovative function of his products are impressive enough, but it’s Béhar’s interest in the human experience and positive social change that give his objects real meaning. In this interview, Béhar chats with Kevin Kelly about his recent work for the safe sex campaign NYC Condom and other acclaimed projects, and shares his vision for how design can help shape our future. Read the rest of this entry »
