I am more than proud to announce an information about OpenFiesta.com (New startup designed by me and developed by my 3 friends) was issue on TV in National News in Panorama on 23th April 2011. Check it out:

I am proud to announce, that OpenFiesta - web site, we were working on, with 3 great developers from Poland: Konrad, Michał and Wojtek is now available for people from all over the world. OpenFiesta is a friendly community, who enjoy preparing and sharing home-cooked meals. Eat. Have fun. Share and Enjoy! It is simple idea behing simple web site, which was created with best usability and experience solutions we keep in mind.OpenFiesta

Few great quotes from article: You Can't Innovate Like Apple

10 to 3 to 1. Take the pixel-perfect approach and pile on top of it the requirement that Apple designers expect to design 10 different mockups of any new feature under consideration. And these are not just crappy mockups; they all represent different, but really good, implementations that are faithful to the product specifications.
Then, by using specified criteria, they narrow these 10 ideas down to three options, which the team spends months further developing…until they finally narrow down to the one final concept that truly represents their best work for production

This approach is intended to offer enormous latitude for creativity that breaks past restrictions. But it also means they inherently plan to throw away 90% of the work they do. I don’t know many organizations for which this would be an acceptable ratio. Your CFO would probably declare, “All I see is money going down the drain.” This is a major reason why I say you can’t innovate like Apple.

The vast majority of executives who say, “I want to be just like Apple,” have no idea what it really takes to achieve that level of success. What they’re saying is they want to be adored by their customers, they want to launch sexy products that cause the press to fall all over themselves, and they want to experience incredible financial growth. But they generally want to do it on the cheap.

They say Jobs had the marble for the floor at the New York Apple store shipped to California first so he could examine the veins. He also complained about the chamfer radius on the plastic case of an early prototype of the Macintosh. You had better believe, given the 10 to 3 to 1 approach for design, that every shadow, every pixel is scrutinized. It’s in their DNA.
They are willing to spend the money to make sure everything is perfect, because that is their mission.

“It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. So you can’t go out and ask people, you know, what’s the next big [thing.] There’s a great quote by Henry Ford, right? He said, ‘If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me ‘A faster horse.’’’

I keep track of highest quality inspiration I find in Internet and around me. I have to admit, that Hubble telescope photos are spectacular! This is like proof of God.

This short, informative and inspiring interview with Paul Raund is definitely worth to read. The author of Thoughts on Design and logos for brands: IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs’ NeXT.

JM: "What is design?"

"Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple defintions, there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated."

"What is the difference between a designer and an artist?"

"There is no difference between a designer and an artist. They both work with form and content. I try to create art, whether I make it or not is not up to me, it's up to God."

"What is the difference between 'good' design and 'bad' design?"

"A bad design is irrelevant. It is superficial, pretentious, ... basically like all the stuff you see out there today."

"What are the fundamental skills of a designer?"

"The fundamental skill is talent. Talent is a rare commodity. It's all intuition. And you can't teach intuition."

"Most of your designs have lasted for several decades, what would you say is your secret?"

"Keeping it simple. Being honest, I mean, completely objective about your work. Working very hard at it."

Doug Bowman is superb designer (ex Google), now working as Twitter’s creative director. Currently we can enjoy new interface of Twitter, redesigned by Doug with his team. You can find whole interview here

Bowman’s philosophy on web design:

“In a world where data bits flow abundantly, our minds have developed filters to sift through the overflow of useless and badly designed information. While design must appeal to our sense of aesthetic, it must not stand in the way of delivery, cause complications or introduce stumbling blocks.

“Rather, the presence of design should simplify and facilitate our everyday life, enable us to accomplish our tasks more effectively and help us enjoy them along the way.”

“As designers, one of our ‘wants’ should always be to help satisfy user needs. [It] kind of goes with the job description when the user experience is so critical to a product’s success. Good designers understand and are attentive to what users need and want to accomplish,” Bowman explained. “Great designers realize that fulfilling those needs can happen in unique and unexpected ways.”

I always look for new ways of exploring, simplifying and organizing my designs.
960 grid does pretty good. It helps not only design sites with proper alignments, but also faster execute them. Nevertheless, in recent times I became a little bit bored of it.

I decided to explore deeper the golden ratio in web design. GOLDEN RATIO CALCULATOR and video below are good start to learn something more about this part of science.

Every specialist reminds basics from time to time. It is all about mastering basics :) Last week I read one more time The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. Once again I found few interesting information. It is one of them:

Some of the most useful web design resources can be found in the art history section of your local bookstore or library. Getting familiar with architectural patterns of the High Renaissance, investigating the realism movement (and understanding how it influenced artists like Van Gogh and Cezanne to break all the rules about texture in paintings), and learning how modernism set the course of the design trends of today will you do more than anserw jeopardy questions. A knowledge of graphic history will expand your visual toolbox, giving you the creativity to develop a style that’s all your own, and the artistic variety to suit any client’s needs.