Search results

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an app magazine called "Sister Mag". Besides the app for iOS, Google Play and Amazon, there is a large blog as well as download and multimedia topics on the website, plus an ISSUU-PDF on the website . I feel that sisterMAG is a very beautifully made women’s magazine with a lot of love for detail about lifestyle, fashion and many other things that make life more fun. Normally, I don’t get lost in women’s magazines as I often lack the time and passion for them – or they are simply all the same. However, sisterMAG really felt different and I put my nose into it for quite a while. "What a great magazine", I thought by myself, "and they even have an app!". The ladies behind sisterMAG really fully understood sustainable publishing that is fit for the future – and executed it well. As an app magazine designer myself, my heart was smiling. And this is why I wrote this blog article about sisterMAG. I took a closer look at issues number 34 (February 2018) and number 12 (April 2014). Considering the editorial design, you can without a doubt tell the editor in chief’s design expertise. Technically, the app was implemented by PressMatrix GmbH in Berlin. The starting screen of the app shows the cover pages of all magazine issues (German and English language). Having several languages within the same app can make things complicated and unfortunately do so in this app, it’s a bit hard to find the issue you want to read. Readers might want to read either the English or the German issue. Two separate apps (one for English and one for German) would have been better here and in the readers’ interest. INTERACTIVE FEATURES What attracted my attention was the fact that sisterMAG doesn’t offer animations, photo slide shows or other "special effect" interactions in the app. The app predominantly works with links to the website. This can make sense here since the website offers a lot of continuative content that links to the relevant topics (an example is dress patterns as PDF downloads on the website as a link from the photos showing the perfectly sewed dresses in the app magazine). Hence: perfect cross-marketing across several channels! In issue number 12 from April 2014, published quite a while ago, I discovered embedded video and audio content. But that was it in terms of multimedia content within the app. Video and audio files seem to be hardly ever used. For sisterMAG, links to the website seem sufficient and financially easily doable. The more complex animations, special effects and other interactions you offer in an app, the more its production costs of course. What I like: All links are visually emphasised so that you instantly see where more content is offered. Very nice! Moreover, the links open in an In-App-Browser. This means that the reader cannot get lost in the world wide web as the browser address line is not displayed. When you want to exit the website, you simply tap on "done" and the In-App-Browser closes, leaving you at the same position in the app where you left it in order to go into the internet. The magazine can be read in both formats on the tablet (portrait and landscape). However, there is a similar problem like shifting print PDFs into a app: It only makes real sense to read the magazine in landscape format, especially when you think of stories that are designed across double pages. TYPOGRAPHY The font size is perfect for a digital reading flow on tablets. When you look at other magazines that shift their print PDF files into the app, you’ll find out that you will be forced to manually zoom in and out on every (!) text column in order to be able to read the app magazine, which is extremely frustrating, as you can imagine. SisterMAG does it well, very good! A source of irritation however are very narrow text columns which can hurt your eye when looking at the text for a little while. Three to five words per line are definitely too little, it should be at least seven to eight words per line for a digital medium, in my opinion. Ordinary book typography demands for an ideal line width of eight to twelve words per line to make it a pleasure for the human eye (see typography expert Wolfgang Beinert). A one column text layout would have been better than a two column text layout here, as a lot of negative space or white space is used anyway. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES The app seems to have limitations in terms of file downloads like PDFs in the In-App-Browser. There was a lovely photo gallery with self-sewed dresses of which patterns were offered as a PDF download. The PDF downloads were linked in the app. The link opened the website in the In-App-Browser and led to the PDF download. However, the PDF was stuck on the first page. It was impossible to scroll further down to see the patterns – this problem occured with all four dress patterns. However, opening the links in the Safari browser on my iPad, there were no problems with PDF downloads, I could scroll down to the end of each PDF file. Also when opening the PDFs on the desktop computer, everything was fine. The app’s In-App-Browser caused the problem. Opening the PDF download outside the app in the Safari browser would have been a good workaround – even though that means readers leave the app. SMARTPHONE COMBATIBILITY You can consume the sisterMAG app also on your smartphone – technically and in theory. However, the readability is not good on the phone. The text size is so small that reading becomes an annoying challenge. The layout of the tablet version is the same as in the smartphone version which of course makes the magazine production easier but the reader has to pay the price for that. A new, smartphone-friendly, layout with bigger font size for smartphones and a one-column layout for the text would have been the better solution. You can find out more information about this specific topic in this video : SisterMAG a very beautiful magazine and fun to read – even though not on your smartphone. But I think, many other special interest magazines can really take a leaf out of sisterMAG’s book. #app #typography #font

Since I started my business HCG corporate designs back in 2010 and got self-employed as a designer, I had the possibility to speak with a huge number of clients, potential clients, business partners, advertising agencies and other entrepreneurs. There is something that I’ve come across quite frequently: Too many companies are unhappy with their advertising agencies. This finding made me dig deeper in the course of trustful talks with colleagues and clients of advertising agencies alike in order to find out more about this phenomenon. It made me write this blog article. 5 FACTS FROM EVERYDAY BUSINESS THAT SPEAK FOR A DESIGNER AND AGAINST AN ADVERTISING AGENCY: # 1 STAFF CHANGE The website of one of Tyrol’s most renowned companies was supposed to be redone in terms of functionality and design. There was a set budget as well as a set timeframe that the advertising agency (also one of the most renowned ones in Tyrol) had to stick to. Several staff changes in the advertising agency’s IT department led to the website project having to be started from scratch three (!) times. Obviously, there was no documentation of the website concept, or the skills of the changing IT people in the advertising agency varied so much, so that no new web designer could continue the work of the previous web designers. This resulted in a costy overdraft of the budget and a delay of the website going live of over 1.5 years. As if that was not bad enough, the client was unsatisfied with the advertising agency’s delivery, but they didn’t want to cancel the project as it was already "so far" and so much money and time had already been invested. IT experts and creatives now smile at the website and sometimes use it as a "negative example" of how certain functionalities and designs aspects should NOT be executed. Staff change cannot happen with a designer (single entrepreneur) of course. The designer is in the topic from start to finish and knows about every single detail. There can still be time or budget overdrafts, though. However, a professional designer communicates this early enough. The client having to suffer under several staff changes and having to pay the price for that (literally), is a risk you don’t have when working with a designer. # 2 QUALITY VS. QUANTITY Typical advertising agencies offer a variety of services: classic print advertising, copywriting, PR and press related work, strategic marketing consulting in terms of positioning, competition conception and execution, surveys, Facebook marketing, Google AdWords, search engine optimisation, web design, web shop design, programming of apps, corporate designs (logos etc.), point of sale design, offline marketing campaigns, radio spots, TV spots etc. The list is long. Designers have a much smaller variety of services. One person alone can never cover as many things as an advertising agency. This is of course a disadvantage for the client. The advantage, on the other hand, is clear and proves itself in everyday business life: Designers are more specialised and thus offer higher quality in their fields than ordinary advertising agencies. # 3 DEPENDENCY Business partners sometimes tell me that they are "dependent" on their advertising agencies, making them feel uncomfortable and they are not fully satisfied with the quality of the work they get delivered. "We go with it just because we have to, we are dependent on them." I can only shake my head here. Dependency is always bad. I provide my clients with raw files upon request (and for paying a higher fee in certain cases). When creating corporate design concepts for example, I always deliver the vector files of the logos too. This way I make sure that my clients are not dependent on me at any time and have the possibility to (whenever they wish) work with other graphic designers (= my competition). Almost all of my clients come back to me when they need something because they were really happy with me. When you do a great job, you don’t need to be afraid of your competitors – I can without a doubt say that after 8 years of being self-employed. I don’t agree with making my clients dependent on me. Transparency and fairness are core values that I live by every day – and my clients appreciate that. # 4 MOTIVATION Self-employed designers being more self-motivated in their work than employed designers, is obvious. Unfortunately, many advertising agencies tend to not pay good enough salaries to designers. This has an influence on motivation at work, what you ultimately see in the design output’s quality. # 5 COSTS Advertising agencies need of course bigger offices than designers who work in small (or even shared) offices. In addition to that, advertising agencies need a price overhead that serves as a financial buffer in times of bad business in order to pay the high fixed cost (salaries, high taxes and insurance fees on salaries etc.). This is not the case with self-employed designers (sole traders). Here you see an example from real life – the transparent calculation of my hourly rate (based on numbers from my own bookkeeping 2017): By the way: You can buy hour contingents for my design services in my online shop and save up to 550.- Euros. (Currently the shop is only available in German language, but you can still make a purchase.) Not all advertising agencies are the same, neither are all designers. This blog article is not intended to categorize all advertising agencies and all designers. But it is intended to show potential for improvements and to sensitise, in the sense of clients, advertising agencies and designers alike. Also, there is a tremendous quality difference between advertising agencies with employees and "one man / one woman advertising agencies" that work with a network of freelancers on a project basis. The latter I would definitely recommend to clients. #advertisement #freelance #agency

Gifographics are gif-animated infographics, have quite a small file size and perfectly suited for sharing on social media or your own website. They are perfect for your content marketing in the world wide web. Over the course of the previous weeks, I have been creating some gifographics on different topics. Enjoy looking through them! (PS: I would be happy to create a gifographic for you too - simply drop me a message !) #infographic #gifographic

Often, a website either looks fantastic or it has complex technical features built in (i.e. a connected database). Just think of typical public transport websites or online shops like Amazon or ebay. Sometimes, it’s not too difficult to see if a website was done by a designer or a programmer. But it does not have to be like that. WYSIWYG systems ("what you see is what you get") like Squarespace, Jimdo or WIX are based on the HTML5 technology and usually provide a lot of design freedom but do not allow you to access the code for including complex technical functions. However, with some creative „out of the box“ thinking and a few workarounds you can come up with much more than what is usual. An example is the PDF download counter on https://www.blickpunkt-lkw-bus.com/heftarchiv which was implemented with a programmer I trust in summer 2017. In late 2017, WIX introduced WIX Code . The claim "Creation Without Limits - Sophisticated technology. Advanced web applications." made me curious and put expectations high. Before offering additional services to my clients, I of course have to test and approve them for myself. First of all, it was very important for me to know if all fonts that are used in the course of a corporate design and uploaded in the WIX backend, would work seamlessly and displayed correctly in elements created with WIX Code (this is not necessarily the case with other WIX apps). As a corporate designer, a consistent design language across all channels is crucial - fonts are part of that. I tested WIX Code with data bases I created myself, tables, user input forms and tooltip functions and was delighted to find out that fonts I had uploaded into the WIX backend before worked perfectly fine in all elements created with WIX Code. Hurray :-) The second crucial point was WIX’s or WIX Code’s compliance with the new EU data protection GDPR coming into effect on 25 May 2018 in EU countries. Please see WIX’s statement below: Good to know. MY CONCLUSION: After three days of intensive testing, I can say that WIX Code really is a well-executed symbiosis of a classic WYSIWYG modular website system with access to the code to a certain extent - I could not find full website code access - in order to get the maximum out of your website. For a well-executed maximum of design and technology. For quite complex things you still need a programmer or coder if you don’t know how to code. But getting a coder involved in a WIX website project used to be pointless before WIX Code as he would not have had any access to the code, his hands used to be bound. Thanks to WIX Code this has changed. Design and technology don’t compete with each other any more, but support and complement each other for a maximum user experience. Thank you, WIX, you did really well here. Hats off! If you need a new website or a website update, simply drop me a message . #wix #webdesign

After a year of creative work, I pampered myself for 10 days in January in order to recharge my creative batteries. I went to Thailand and discovered a great source of inspiration: a white temple. The Thais call it "What Rong Khun"; Wat is Thai for "temple". The renowned artist Chalermchai Kositpipat built this outstanding temple in the province of Chiang Rai aiming at bringing more tourists to the north of the country. Successfully! Even though an earthquake in spring 2014 left its mark (the snapped off temple roof’s top reminds you of it), many parts of the site could be repaired. For somebody with a creative job like me, this white temple is an incredible source of inspiration. I could discover something new around every corner: the creatures from hell to the left and right of the entrance bridge, silver mirror elements reflecting the sunlight making the temple "glisten", tropical fish ponds, pop culture wall paintings inside the building (which I was not allowed to take photos of, unfortunately) etc. And not to forget: The gold-coloured toilet house! Copyright photos: Ashley Wiggins, Helene Clara Gamper #thailand #temple #inspiration #holiday

Daimler organised a press conference on "e-mobility in the future" in the old post station of Berlin on 14 December 2017. The worldwide first fully electronic trucks produced in series are called "eCanter" and were presented and handed over to renowned clients like DB Schenker , Dachser , DHL and Rhenus . An interesting article about this event and the e-trucks can be read in the upcoming issue of "Blickpunkt LKW & BUS" (available in German language only). What this blog article is about though, is the design of the event that I as a designer really loved: tilted lines going forward (important, as forward = progress!) transported a feeling of "shift to the future", forward thinking and an intelligent, seamless shift from the present to the future. Strong, bold majuscules (capital letters) as well as centred headers gave the brand message even more strength. The tilted forward lines were smartly repeated within the font after the "main tilted line" (see photo below: DE/LIVER). All visual touch points (cardboard boxes, screens, notepads, entrance tickets etc.) were equipped with that holistic design, showing a forward thinking, futuristic look. Daimler, congratulations! A very cute thing, I find, was the worldwide first "truck ballet" with the e-trucks driving around us without making any noise (please excuse the shakiness, it's a spontaneous mobile phone video): #truck #event #typography

In the tip section of my website you find useful and practical graphic and media design advice for both corporate clients as well as designers. This month, three new topics were added: an interesting interview with David Airey on branding, how to consistently display colours in print and on screens and an interview with a renowned German publishing house with regards to paper selection for magazines. About a month ago, I launched my new podcast on Soundcloud and iTunes , which covers the topics of this website's tip section. So now you are able to download interesting topics to listen to offline and on the go. Over the next few weeks, more podcast episodes will join the list. You can find snapshots of new design projects as always on my social media channels like Facebook or Twitter - or simply subscribe to my free newsletter . I wish you a wonderful Christmas time and a very happy New Year 2018! #app #podcast

(This blog article was updated on 2 January 2018.) Asking if a mobile website or an app is a better option for you, you won’t get one clear answer. It always depends on the exact case. However, this blog article delivers you some useful tips so you can find out what’s best for you. ACCESS A mobile website is accessible for everybody. An app has to be downloaded first – a little extra effort compared to the mobile website. NEWS It’s great when you post news or new photos on your mobile website. But: How do these news find their way to your target group? A website update is not communicated to people. Wishes like "visit our website more often for regular updates" are seldom read and even more seldom fulfilled. Apps work completely different in this matter: Push Notifications (somewhat an SMS from the app to the smartphone) can automatically notify app users of updates like "see our exclusive report about XY now in our app". This is a big advantage when you think of mobile app vs. website. DISTRACTION In times of information overflow, distraction is a very important topic. A mobile website constantly competes with other tabs, windows and other mobile websites on the smartphone of your potential client. Apps however carry hardly any distraction risk. An app is a self-contained system that minimises distractions and makes the user engage with the content even more. WAITING TIME / PERFORMANCE Once an app is downloaded, there won’t be any annoying waiting time or slow loading times, because: apps can also work offline! If done well, apps often run more "smoothly" than mobile websites because you’re not dependent on the internet speed or browser performance of your smartphone. On the other hand, mobile websites re-load again and again every time you visit them. When you’re on the road or in a Wifi-free zone, a mobile website is not available, an app is. BRAND LOYALTY A mobile app boosts brand loyalty much more than a mobile website could ever do, because the app icon is constantly visible on the app user’s screen. Thinking of mobile websites: Once you surf away from them, they are out of your mind. COSTS The development of an app is, in most cases, more expensive that the creation of a mobile website. This also accounts for updates in the future. CONCLUSION As you can see, the question "mobile website or app" comes up with many different answers. Every business has different requirements and different customers. An online shop should for sure focus on their mobile website, a native app might be obsolete in this case. A publishing house on the other hand can massively benefit from delivering articles straight to the readers via the app, rather than having a mobile website that nobody sees. #mobilewebsite #app

Every year we all get showered with Christmas cards. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t react exactly like this: "Gosh, I chuck that anyway." When you run your own business, you might ask yourself in this very moment too what kind of xmas card you should send to your loyal customers and business partners this year. What comes in handy is that printing companies ship out their brochures with numerous xmas card layouts to you. This is great because it makes you get rid of that annoying to-do. It’s fast, cheap and you don’t have to invest any brainpower in order to get a Christmas card. As an entrepreneur you have more important things to care about in your everyday life than Christmas cards, right? Aaand? What kind of Christmas cards will you send out this year? One that makes the recipients say "another one"? Question: Have you ever kept a Christmas card - for years? And held it in your hands again every year? Probably not. A few years ago, I created exactly such a Christmas infographic card for my clients and business partners. (The design was based on my HCG branding that I had back then.) This recipe infographic shows a delicious cookie recipe incl. step-by-step baking instructions on the front page, the ingredients list and a personal message from me on the inside. And most importantly: When opening the Christmas card, you could see a little pouch with cookies baked by myself - with love. My clients and business partners could taste the yummie cookies before they went on to bake them themselves. This was quite time-consuming, yes. But it was so successful, that some clients even called me in person to thank me. Never before they had received such an outstanding Christmas card, made with so much love, based on such a unique idea. This is a xmas card that you keep and hold in your hands whenever you bake cookies before Christmas. If you, too, want to send such an unforgettable Christmas card to your clients and business partners, contact me . I’m looking forward to hearing from you! #infographic

Google launched its Data Gif Maker a few months ago. As an infographic designer, this tool caught my attention very quickly of course. The Data Gif Maker compares numbers and displays them in relation to each other. The end result is a nice, animated gif file which you can easily use on your website, your blog, your social media timelines etc. I tested the data gif maker with real data: Different mobile devices of one of my publisher client’s app magazine: 51% iPad, 26% iPhone, 18% Android phone and 5% Android tablet. Unfortunately, I already stumbled over the first hurdle: The Data Gif Maker allows only two data inputs. Alright, so I had to break it down to 77% iOS and 23% Android. Selecting the % symbol, the graphic looks like this: However, the Google Data Gif Maker can also be fed with ordinary numbers. So I used the iOS and Android user numbers again: (This makes of course only sense when both numbers sum up to 100%. Comparing two numbers that are not part of one whole sum are not logical presenting with the Data Gif Maker.) You can download low-res and high-res gif versions. However, even the low-res pictures took three minutes to download – for one single gif file! And I tested it several times in different browsers (!) on differet days in different months. In most cases, the tool crashed and did not make it to export the gif files. In only few cases the tool actually worked fine. Probably the worst performance ever for an online tool – and it comes from Google! As regards the look: Google was clever to keep the tool in the colours of the Google Material Design only. If there will be further individualisation possibilities in future remains to be seen ... But first, Google should improve the technical performance of the tool! Conclusion: It’s a nice tool to easily bring more oomph into your online presence. However, it takes incredibly long to download gif files. This is why I personally cannot recommend the Google Data Gif Maker. #infographic #gifographic #google

Dr. Kerstin Gasser-Puck is a general practitioner and takes over the surgery of her father in 2017. In addition to the usual work in her surgery, she also supports old people’s homes and does plastering, x-rays etc. in her "mini clinic" in the countryside. Besides that, she operates her own pharmacy as well. The perfect combination of academic medicine and complementary medicine as well as the high-quality care for her patients are very important to the doctor. In order to inaugurate the third generation, I developed a holistic corporate design concept incl. various print materials. Mrs. Dr. Gasser-Puck wants to keep existing customers and win new, young patients. A modern, professional and friendly look shall generate a positive atmosphere in which the patients feel good. You can see all the details about this great project in my portfolio. #corporatedesign #logo

Hiking is beautiful. Especially, when it takes place in Tirol. The Kitzbüheler Horn, the Wilder Kaiser and the area around St. Johann in Tirol and Ellmau provide wonderful panoramic views, splendid hiking routes as well as delicious Tirolean meals on the Alm huts. In today’s blog post, I want to share some of these great impressions of my hike. #tirol #hiking #nature