Thoughts on the soon to be released Vimeo redesign

Last Thursday I was given access to the beta of Vimeo’s new redesign, a bold effort to to make the site feel very 2K12, rather than 2009. Here are some thoughts on the goods and the could-have-been-betters of the design.

- The UI is a ton cleaner, giving all the focus to the video. This is evident in a couple spots like the home page, which now gives you three different ways to view the site, the version above being my favorite. The large, bold preview images definitely take the focus.

- The top navigation now opens up to reveal a drawer full of options, which is a great way to showcase a ton of different places to go. It’s also nice that they spell out what each section will contain for people who are unfamiliar.

- The individual video pages have also been cleaned up immensely. All you really see is a giant video on your screen, the way it was meant to be.

- Text hierarchy has strongly enforced around the site, telling you exactly what you should be looking at, such as the titles of the videos which come in at a whopping 36 px font.

- The More Video tab at top is a nice touch, showing related content as well as videos you’ve recently views and other videos from the user who’s video page you’re on. Some people I showed said they wouldn’t have noticed it though, so perhaps it’s a bit too discrete?

- Glad they didn’t touch the video player, it’s perfect.

- They now give you a more clear option to switch between the Flash and HTML5 player. Unfortunately, the HTML5 player sucks and barely worked when I used it at home. That said, my developer friends at work said that HTML5 sucks at playing video, so this probably shouldn’t reflect on Vimeo.

- The sidebar feels a bit sloppy and slightly overwhelming. It’s definitely treated subordinately, which I’m sure is the point, but it ended up feeling a it neglected. Not sure if there’s a fix or if they should change anything, but it was something I’d noticed.

- The site is starting to feel more social, like you’d want to try and hunt down your friends and see what they’re doing. I didn’t get this vibe before and never bothered to look. The only users I followed were those making rad shit, using the site more like a bookmarking system.

Overall I’d say the redesign is a huge step forward, especially for it’s art and design-centric community. Looking forward to the Vimeo team to continue rolling out improvements like these, hopefully they don’t take another few years.

Bobby

Andrew Holder Interview On Los Angeles, I’m Yours

Today on Los Angeles, I’m Yours, we have a special treat: an interview with artist Andrew Holder. Holder has been featured on The Fox Is Black quite a few times and is a super sweet guy, living in a nice little house in Eagle Rock. We spoke with him about his work and inspirations, how Art Center in Pasadena is the reason he is in the city, and how surfing in Los Angeles isn’t very good. Be sure to check it out and, if the interview doesn’t sell you, he also wanted to climb up a tree for his portrait (which ended up being super rad). You can read the story here.

KYLE

The fragility of efficiency: Tensegrity lights by Michal Maciej Bartosik

A few years ago, I came across a photo of a lighting system designed by Michal Maciej Bartosik, although I didn’t know it at the time because the photo was uncredited. “Who did this?” I didn’t figure it out then, but the smart use of fluorescent tubes as structural components in a glowing dome stuck with me. Years later, I’m happy to have figured out who made it, and just how talented he is. Michal Maciej Bartosik studied architecture (and now lives) in Canada. A newer light sculpture/structure of his employs a structural principle popularized by Buckminster Fuller: Tensegrity.

Tensegrity has always made me a little nervous. It’s a very efficient way to hold something up, but there’s no redundancy: every member of the structure is critical to keep the structure standing. If a single cable snaps, it can cause the whole structure to collapse. So while I think these light sculptures are amazing, I have a hard time figuring out what happens when one of the tubes burns out.

Alex

Ditch Helvetica, try these 5 contemporary sans serif typefaces

The other night I took to Twitter to see if anyone had any good suggestions for a contemporary feeling sans-serif typeface for use in a project that I’m working on. I received a number of suggestions, so I thought I’d share five typefaces which were my favorites. They’re listed out in alphabetical order, not by preference, in case you were wondering. And if you were curious what the typeface in the image above was, it’s Avenir.

You can click the titles of each font to get more information/purchase them.

Alright Sans by Jackson Cavanaugh
Alright Sans is a contemporary sans-serif. Inspired by both grotesque and humanist models, it’s clean and prudent with a warm, friendly tone.

Alright Sans is a modest design that doesn’t feel at all stiff or bland. It has open apertures and roundabout economy that works exceptionally well across media and at reduced sizes. And with shorter-than-normal capitals and a tall x-height, it’s functional without becoming distracting, goofy, or unprofessional.

Aperçu by The Entente
Aperçu is a sans-serif typeface designed by Brighton based studio The Entente. Aperçu was started in December 2009, and has been trialled and tested through a number of design commissions taken on by The Entente through 2010. The conceit behind Aperçu was to create a synopsis or amalgamation of classic realist typefaces: Johnston, Gill Sans, Neuzeit & Franklin Gothic.

Calibre by Klim Type Foundry
Calibre is a geometric neo-grotesque, inspired by the rationality of Aldo Novarese’s seldom seen Recta. The now-defunct Nebiolo foundry released Recta in the late ’50s, designed by a team lead by Aldo Novarese. Like Novarese’s Microgramma & Forma, Recta seems to be an attempt to rationalise the genre. Unfortunately it’s marred by over optical correction and awkward branching—neither smooth nor sharp. However, Recta’s rationalisation of the neo-grotesque genre appealed to me and was a logical starting point for Calibre.

You can read a long and extremely interesting essay on the creation of Calibre, and it’s counterpart, Metric by clicking here.

Knul by Jonathan Hill
An elegant modern typeface with a subtle monoline appearance. The simplicity of the design creates clean forms best suited to identity, editorial and advertising uses.

Supria Sans by Hannes von Döhren
Supria Sans and Supria Sans Condensed is an extended family of 36 fonts designed by Hannes von Döhren. It contains two widths, six weights and three styles, including the curvy, feminine Italic as well as the more conventional Oblique. Although it is inspired by the utilitarian clarity of Swiss type design, subtle curves and fine detailing impart a more playful character to the whole Supria Sans family.

A garden shed or a home away from home?

I came across these lovely photos over on Anthology and was totally surprised to find out that this is not a lovely bedroom, it’s actually a garden shed. The styling that was put into this, while minimal, made me think this was some sort of outdoor vacation lodge that you could camp out in during the warm summer months. And maybe you could? It would certainly be romantic and not entirely impractical. If you’re interested in learning more about this garden shed, you can click here.

Bobby