The Rule of Thirds is a podcast about design by 3 chaps all madly interested in, oddly enough, design. It'll hope to cover all forms of design from, Print, Packaging and Branding (Luke), to 3D and Animation (Jon) to Web (Tom).
If you think you have something worthy to contribute, then we'd gladly have you on the show provided you don't mention Comic Sans or Rainbow filters.
Drop us an e-meither
In this episode:
News: Sorry, no news this month, bit thin on the ground (with time)....
Feature: Pre-recorded interview with Elliot Jay Stocks where Tom fires the following questions relating to the subject of the design for web at him:
As a designer firmly rooted in the web design 'underground' you’re clearly aware of modern trends and styles that appear throughout the numerous well known design folk, and we tend to see forming trends well in advance of 'regular people'. As you said at FOWA, you wish to constantly strive and push forward your design ideas and styles. How do you convince clients to allow you to let their site to push boundaries with new design styles, over a typical 'web 2.0, shiny, big buttons etc' that most always perceive to be brilliant?
Talking specifically about trends, what do you think of the current style which appears to be either worn, tatty and rustic or shiny, glossy and sexy and where you think it'll head next?
What 3 things tools do you think you could do least without – software, hardware etc. in your day to living.
How do you price design jobs? Do you have set costs for 'a front end design' or 'a logo / branding project' or do you price depending on the complexity / requirements. What to do when designs a becoming an uphill battle – eg clients saying "one of the directors is still not sure but the rest of us think it's ok"
This month's apology:Jon was going to put up the 3 designs he's produced for his personal site for citique, but he's since decided to settle on one of them, so the voting (which was never open), is now closed. Sorry. But if you are interested, his chosen design can be seen here.
In this episode:
News: Launch of new 3D Studio Max rendering software and discussions on how's it's best used and comparisons to traditional forms of artistic creation. The bizarre story about whether Kellogg's are really lazer etching cornflakes, and Luke announces that he is being published in a couple of books.
Q&A: A few hand picked questions from the last Meetdraw event in Bournemouth are answered, some relating to industry and some not.
Feature: We are joined by Mr James Budden. Artist, musician, part-time scientist and all round nice guy to discuss his experiences in working with more traditional forms of art and design, compared to modern 'whizz kids' like us three who spend our lives sat in front of screens.
PLEASE NOTE: There is a rather distasteful intital 5 mins of buzz from Jon's mobile phone. An apology has been recorded to confirm this which you will hear at the beginning of the episode.
In this episode:
News: The news of Ikea's (some may say) poor decision to switch their corporate typeface to something less salubrious, bits and pieces from industry including an interesting new Font Foundry and the announcement of Meetdraw 3.
Feature: This month is all about Inspiration. All 3 of us discuss where we look to for ideas, what to do when we're not finding any, and what things you can do before you begin a project to ensure inspiration and ideas come a little easier.
In this episode:
News:We discuss the new Wilkinson (the cheap stores not the razors!) branding, and get the review from John Lyle, and we also hear the news that the D&AD shed 12 jobs in the current economic climate.
Feature: This month we focussed on Branding. Predominantly our experiences / preferences and what makes a great brand, but also how colour and tone of voice etc can affect people's perception of a company.
NB: Jon may appear slightly subdued throughout this episode as previously we (I, Tom) did laugh unnecessarily at his purchase of a Opticom telephone (which is actually really very good it turns out), sorry Bear...
In this episode:
Introduction to who we are and the reason for the existence of such a thing.
News:Luke discsuses D&AD Student awards and what effect they have on industry, and Tom talks about the use of non-websafe font's as part of CSS3's @font-face, and the rise of Typekit.
Feature:
This month we focussed on trends in design how they are followed in different fields and when they are and aren't suitable for the audience.
Jon introduced the use of the 960 grid system for web designers and we discuss what effect it has on design.