Kiwi design
Say hello to Kiwi
I am really excited to tell you all about our recent work with YourHead Software on their Twitter client, Kiwi. Here’s a quick rundown of what Kiwi is and what makes this little guy so special:
YourHead Software today is proud to announce the release of Kiwi 1.0, a themeable Twitter client for Mac OS X. Kiwi is a full-featured Twitter client that supports multiple accounts, groups, searches and rules/filters. Kiwi also gives users the power to change the look, or theme, to match their desktop.
You can read more about Kiwi on kiwi-app.net.
Design
We worked with Isaiah on developing a polished app icon (above) as well as toolbar icons, user interface, themes and more. It has truly been a unique and exciting project from the get go.
One of the biggest challenges was designing our flightless friend above. I’d never drawn a kiwi, and not living in New Zealand I’ve not seen many of the fuzzy little guys. So I started with a good deal of research...
Everything I researched was absolutely adorable. The kiwi has to be one of the coolest birds I’ve ever seen. So fluffy and cute and that beady little black eye and long beak show so much personality. I hope that that personality shows through in the icon as well.
Themes
I also worked with Isaiah on designing the themes that ship with Kiwi. I designed them from scratch using just HTML and CSS and a whole lot of love. We worked on incorporating all of Webkit’s bells and whistles into each of the themes. Some themes focus on pure usability while others are designed to be fun and different. Myself and Ollie Levy are currently constructing Kiwi Themes, which will be a site where you can download more themes for Kiwi as well as upload and share your own.
In addition to the theme designs I made it my goal to give each theme a personality of its own through a unique icon design for each one. Here’s a few samples:
Check it out
If you’ve not already tried out Kiwi, please give it a go. You’ll really enjoy it. If you’re into theme design, be sure to read through the API documentation and signup for the Kiwi Themes newsletter so you’ll know when we launch and you can upload and share you Kiwi themes with the world!
Comics with style
We recently finished a
project for Bitolithic’s latest iPhone app — Comic
Zeal.
Comic Zeal is an app that allows you to download
and read comic books on your iPhone. It also lets
publishers and independent writers and artists the
ability to publish their comics through ComicZeal.
We designed and created the app’s icon, splash
screen and many of the interface elements.
Be sure to check it out on the iTunes App Store (App Store
link).
Also
We’ve updated our portfolio section. Have a look when you get a
chance.
Partitions and Styled Text Plus
His original idea for Partitions was to have separated areas, or columns, of colors that would jut up and off of a web page.
While doing some initial sketches for this idea I did a little brain storming and came up with the following idea of separating the colored objects with physical partitions:
Gary was happy with this direction and we decided
to step it up a bit. He requested we add a divider
horizontally. In doing so I decided to take a
chance and develop the colored blocks into actual
objects. The next iteration was a big leap forward:
I wanted to convey to
the user the sort of items that could be placed
onto the page inside of Partitions. We discussed
other items to add to the empty bays and to leave
one empty, inviting the user to place their on
content. This is the final version of the icon:
Since finishing the
icon we’ve also created an alternate version of the
icon for Gary:
Included in the project
were a few internal icons for navigating the
plug-in, representing the body of the content, the
header and footer, and the settings:
Another of our icons
for Gary recently was for his back-to-basics
plug-in, Styled Text Plus:
Collage 2 plug-in icon
About Collage 2
Collage builds great looking thumbnails from your images, styles them all with slick graphical effects, and links them to other content on your site. With Collage you can add smooth Javascript animations like lightbox effects, slideshows, or a pop-up hovering info box. And you don't have to be an computer guru to do it. Just drag in a few images, select a style, and publish.
The vision
The idea came directly from YourHead’s very own Isaiah. The thought of Polaroids and a Gluestic that Isaiah had pictured immediately provoked images of collages and assemblage. We developed his idea into a fullfledged icon. Have a look:
The new plug-in went
into public beta testing today. Be sure to go check
it out. We also created some of the built-in
Collage Styles through our sister site, elixir graphics.
*Note: This icon is the property of YourHead
Software and cannot be used or duplicated without
their permission.
It's the bomb
Up until now I have
used PhotoShop and Illustrator in designing all of
my graphics for the web and print. Whether the
projects be icons or websites or ads I've toiled
away in these two apps for over 10 years.
Recently I took an interest in learning and using
Cinema 4D to model icons in 3D.
I've already begun to dive into the application and
so far I am enjoying it a lot. I find it pretty
intuitive so far and see a wealth of potential.
As I learn Cinema 4D I will have some freebies to
post — starting today.
Here's my first Cinema 4D designed freebie.
I've included sizes 512 x 512 down through 16 x 16
in PNG, TIFF, ICNS, ICO and Mac Folder.
Click download above and enjoy!