We added rich-text editing to make it easier to bold and italicize text. We also knew that Forrsters were having trouble making bulleted lists in the editor, which is why we've made that available here. There's also an ability to add an embedded link.

Here's what we'd like to know:

• Which do you prefer, rich-text editing or markdown?
• Would this make it easier for you to write your posts?
• Given a preference, would you rather embed a link in text or as a separate entity?

Today's Ranger Snapshot comes from Yael Miller, of Miller Creative in New Jersey. Her branding and packaging work is phenomenal and we wanted to get more insight into her process.

We really love how the Bunches & Bunches branding feels both modern and like something you'd find at the turn-of-the-century. What was the inspiration for the labels? What design decisions do you think work best?

It's all about juxtaposing. The contrasting colors are the modern component, while the styling of the type and the scratchboard illustration combine to make it feel turn-of-the-century. We specified very tactile finishes on all components — the box itself was coated in a special matte coating that gives it a silky, rose petal feel, with embossed elements. The label seal was printed letterpress. The combinations and textures make the box interesting and delightful to look at and also entice the consumer to pick it up and examine more closely.

The inspiration behind the label is based on the idea of detailed paper seals making something feel more special. Think of cigar boxes or high end scotch whiskey - the paper seal gives these items a luxurious and precious feel. By mimicking that, we convey a sense of luxury in packaged products. Juxtaposing a detailed label on a simple box also helps create intrigue.

2. The typography is what really sells the motif of the branding. How does typography influence the design or vice versa? If you had more time, is there anything you would change in both the typography or the overall design?

We spent many days working on various typographic solutions, especially for the word "SNAPS". The client, who is a very creative and visually-inspired person, had a very clear vision of what she wanted, yet this required a lot of thinking to select the perfect font and the precise colors.  I don't think there is anything we'd change — we were pretty satisfied with the way it turned out. The product is selling very well, so this hopefully proves out that the design decisions we made have paid off.

3. With the Simple Squares snack bar rebranding, it seemed as if you too the opposite approach from Bunches & Bunches — going from a somewhat older turn-of-the-century look to something more modern. What were the design opportunities with Simple Squares and how did that influence the final product?

The Simple Squares rebranding project was more of a "messaging optimization" prospect. We looked at the packaging and determined that consumers weren't necessarily "getting" what the product was and why it was better, special or different than other products on the shelf.

We strengthened the brand voice overall with punchy, clear typography and optimized packaging-attribute messaging by making sure to clearly state what the product was in a clear, yet visually appealing way. We kept within the "spirit" of the brand by maintaining the color palette and rustic/natural feel of the typography. So, although it's more modern, the design still has its roots in historic styles with wood type and typewriter fonts.

4. Something you tweeted caught our eye. You wrote, "The words 'guilt free' should be banned from packaged foods, period." Mind expanding on that thought. What are some other words that should be removed from packaging copy and why?

One of my mantras is stating things in a real and honest way on packaging (and marketing in general). Consumers have lost a lot of trust for brands with the rise of obesity and the way consumer brands have contributed to that since the 50s and 60s until today.

Brands have to respect that consumers are not stupid and aren't going to fall for catch phrases and buzz words. In fact, those words actually work against brands. "Guilt free" is one of those statements that means absolutely nothing and makes all kinds of assumptions about the consumer. Feeling guilt or being free of it has nothing to do with marketing a food product. That's just one example of overused marketing-speak on packaging. other examples are "gourmet", "great taste", "satisfy your cravings", "good for you", "eat smart", "mouthwatering", "better for you and taste good too", etc.

Know of a great designer or design that we should feature? Email us: hello@forrst.com.

Re-imagined iOS 7 Control Center. - Lightened the compartment dividers to lessen visual noise - Increased spacing/padding to make the UI feel less crowded - Resized and updated some icons - Adjusted the visual treatment for some controls

UPDATE 1.0 :

Based on the client feedback, I changed the colors of the thumbnails. Light grey for the active product thumbnail and dark grey for the other.

Secondly, the brand might undergo a change in their color palette (website) to black. Hence I've also prepared a black version.

I have also removed that small bar over the highlighted thumbnail to give some uniformity to the slider.

INITIAL DRAFT :

HEAD ON SHOTS :

The 'Browse All' screen in which all the products are listed.

SIDEBAR/MENU :

The client requested for another option on the font, so I put forth this :

Today's Ranger Snapshot comes from Portugal-based designer Rafael Matos da Silva. We've been followed his branding and interaction work. His work on a live infographic for a Portuguese media outlet really knocked our socks off. We chatted with him about it and got a better insight into his process.

1. Your infographic work, particularly the RTP Live Infographics, really caught our eye. The graphics are vivid and vibrant, and there's an almost futuristic quality to the interface. What was the inspiration for the design? What design decisions do you think really work well? 

RTP, which stands for Portuguese Radio Television, is an umbrella for 10 TV channels and 10 radio stations, each one with an individual brand and color scheme. That's a huge color palette to start with and a bit daunting. I've analyzed all those brand books and trimmed each station/channel down to 3 basic tones, while maintaining their identity.

The futuristic aspect was a natural extension of the brand's look and feel. It wasn't deliberated. It just happened as a result of adding RTP's brand qualities into the interface.

I always start my projects by doing information architecture and analyzing the brand. I don't jump into a project with a defined aesthetics — it's the brand that drives me. The challenge is to tailor a brand's soul into the interface and enhance its personality throughout.

2. We really like the feature that measures the social weight of each channel. What were some of the challenges you faced in getting that to work? If you had more time, what would you change about the design?

Well, the main challenge was to think of a way to celebrate RTP's 15 years of digital presence. After all those years, as you can imagine, the result is data fragmentation all across the web. So, a lot of the effort was building a cohesive and individual “hashtaging” system for each of their shows, channel or stations, while maintaining the uniqueness and hierarchy of their services. This unifies and encourages a methodology for their digital communication, while improving the efficiency of the infographics. This can also be a powerful analysis tool for their digital footprint.

The other challenge was to design dynamic infographics — living-infographic-beings, so to speak. Unlike static infographics, I didn’t know what the actual data was, so I had to foresee most possibilities and prepare this system to be solid and usable no matter what data it receives, and with room to grow if any new shows, channels or stations are added.


With more time, I would probably include some sort of timeline, to keep track of changes through time and improve the depth of the experience and analysis.

3. We see that you're based out of Lisbon, Portugal. Any tips for sights to see when we're out there?

I actually wasn’t born in Lisbon, but I moved here in 2008 and it's great. Lisbon doesn’t have all the fuss that most European capitals have, but probably that’s why it’s so special. The city is filled with narrow streets and tons of places to visit and hangout. From gothic cathedrals to hard rock clubs, there's a place for everyone. The weather is great and the food is unbelievable.


At dawn, with the castle at the top of the hills, the city feels light and warm, in a medieval kind of way. It’s sort of romantic and epic at the same time.


There's also tons of talented people around here, which makes it even more attractive from a creative standpoint. Lisbon is indeed beautiful and attractive, but I encourage you to visit Portugal, from top to bottom. I'm pretty sure you'll be amazed.

Know of a great designer or design that we should feature? Email us: hello@forrst.com.

Introduced a star burst and drop shadows for depth.

Comp 1 - I added a couple of palm trees and sunset scene eluding to Los Angeles. I do think the concepts of the starburst and the sun which naturally gives off rays may be fighting here...

Comp 2 - The sprig of barley is a nice touch, but seems clip art like even though I drew it. It becomes incomprehensible when filled - outline is slightly better.

The little suns you see in each comp is my attempt at trying to introduce more visual interest or something unique. By themselves and enlarged I think they are quite interesting however they just don't jive with this composition I believe...

Today's Ranger Snapshot comes from Gabriel Campbell, senior experience designer at Adobe Systems. We've been very impressed with his work for Adobe's native apps and decided to chat with him more about his process.

1. We really jazzed about the upcoming Kuler iOS app. What were some of the design challenges in taking the color tool into a native app? What do you think works best in the design? 

The main challenge is trying to create a meaningful experience in compact design. You want the user to feel like they can really create something, but not feel hindered by a small screen. We were able to take the color wheel and really make it a focal point with some fun interactions. For me, what works best for the design are all the things that aren't there.

Creating something refined and simple that leaves out anything extraneous is not easy, but it helps make way for a better design.

2. The UI is amazing and beautiful, especially the color wheel and sliders. If you had more time, what would you change in the design? 

I'd like to add in more color spaces besides just RGB. Also, I think it would be great to explore what can be done with the color themes once they've been created — more practical applications like a style guide or something that might resonate with designers. Aside from that, I'm anxious to hear from our users what features they would like to see. 

3. We're also impressed by the drawing tool, Ideas, which has both a tablet and a phone version. What were the interaction design challenges you faced designing for both the phone and tablet since the latter has much more screen real estate?

Ideas started out as iPhone only, so when we went to iPad I felt like I had so much freedom! But designing features for both devices can be tricky. I'll usually begin designing for the iPad first, as that's where I feel most of our users are speeding the majority of their "Ideas time."

Once I feel the interactions have been honed, I'll get the design on iPhone going. That design might then inform the iPad design and some changes and tweaks will need to be considered. By now, though, we have a pretty robust library of patterns and interactions, so designing has gotten a bit easier as the app has matured.

4. We've seen you also sketch on the iPad in a time-lapsed video. You're quite the artist with your fingertips! Did you ever want to be a comic book artist? And do you still use traditional methods, paper, pencil or pens? 

Thanks! I stared drawing from an early age, and for a long time comics were my only textbooks. I eventually stopped drawing Wolverine and trained as a sculptor and fine artist before pursuing design. I love going back to traditional media, as it has a very gratifying tactile quality that digital equivalents have yet to achieve. 

Know of a great designer or design that we should feature? Email us: hello@forrst.com.

Today's Ranger Snapshot comes from Pennsylvania Brett Withjack. He has an amazing responsive site, but he's also building a native app version, which is also stunning. We decided to chat with him about the app and learn more about why he decided to go native.

1. We're really impressed by the accordion fold of the app. What were the challenges in creating that design and implementing it? 

Basically, what I wanted to do is create an even more mobile-friendly version of my online portfolio. The challenge of course being that my site is very simple and minimalistic, in return giving more focus on my featured work. So making something exciting was where I wanted my attention to go first. Given the molded standard of user-experience with today's most popular apps, I decided to create a sidebar navigation on the left. It has become almost second nature to look there to explore more options.

Also, keeping up with the plethora of social media sites, I decided to implement sharing links on the right as well. I felt I was missing something though. If ever I wanted to post updates on what I've been up to, I wanted a simple way for everyone to check up with what's new, instead of having to look through the app. So with that, I dedicated the bottom to a list of updates. Another challenge with that is the fact that I needed another icon to let the user know they should look there for more. I came up with several different transitions and ideas before finally hitting the mark with the folding feature, and going away with needing an icon at the bottom. It was very fun but tricky rendering it out. I had to flatten the design, cut it up, and "distort" the pieces. In terms of color and type, I wanted to be consistent so I used what's on my website: an off-white texture with black, letter-pressed, type. And finally, the header on the app is orange for no other reason except it's my favorite color.

2. The typography is top-notch and the detailing across the app wonderful. What were some of the design decisions that you think really work? Is there anything you'd like to change? 

Typography is my absolute favorite. I couldn't have a great looking app with the use of just one font and a couple lines here and there. And, in my most truthful opinion, I can't stand the thought of using helvetica for everything. Yeah it had its time, but it won't have its time in my work. It's lacking features, characteristics, and it's just everywhere.

Instead, I went with a couple fonts that are new and unique. I originally had a lot of slab serif usage, but changed last minute. Coming up with the background was one of my favorite parts as well. You see the front of the app, the off-white texture, and how it plays with the dark fonts and bright header. But only when you look for more, you see the app's second layer. A dark-textured zebra striped bed made perfect for words, links, and icons. I felt it was perfect for the backend of something unique and eye catching. In fact, not even a month later, did I notice YouTube's iOS update featured something practically identical. They definitely didn't get it from a kid in Pennsylvania, but I knew it was becoming more and more prevalent, so implementing it into my app was a must.

3. You have a really impressive and responsive portfolio site. What spurred your decision to also create a native app to complement that? And what were some of the challenges you faced in designing for a iOS app versus the web? 

At the time, I had worked full time for an ad agency here in PA doing many various tasks. Seeing bright new work come through constantly, and being surrounded by fellow designers, I was beginning to bleed creativity. I wanted to do so much more in my free time then Netflix, so I started working on my portfolio.

Once my site was close enough to go live, I wanted to christen it with a great looking iOS app version of the site. I still think there's plenty of work to be done, seeing that there's only a fraction of my work actually posted, so I figured this is where I want to start. A clean, responsive slate. In terms of experience, and challenges, I'm always looking to push myself further in the realm of design. Going from web design to mobile design was a very simple transition, but figuring out how to mock in my designs was challenging on its own. I must have taken a hundred photos of my phone before downloading a free stock image of an iPhone to put my designs into. It was frustrating and hilarious, but a good learning experience.

4. We also see you're quite the guitarist. How does your music play a role in how you approach design? 

Growing up, who doesn't want to be a rock star? I got my first real six string down at the five-and-dime ... Just kidding, they don't have those anymore. But really, it's my favorite hobby. I try to keep it from becoming any type of career because I never what to overplay anything I know or have created. I try to record and use some of my time towards music, but things have just been too busy. I sold my drums, and narrowed down my guitar collection to an electric and an acoustic. With that, I record all my music and keep it simple. Relating this to my design efforts, it's easy to overdo something, adding too many instruments and making it incredibly expensive and complex, when all you really need is a great set of strings, and a sound everyone can really get into. Keep it simple, that's all you need to do.

Know of a great designer or design that we should feature? Email us: hello@forrst.com.