Topic: Sign Sphere
Tags: Design, egd, information, inspiration, Sign Sphere
Publish date: October 19th, 2009
By: Sander Baumann
Comments: {3 appreciated comments, please join and share your thoughts.}

SignSphere: Inspirational design

SignSphere is a monthly collection of design inspirational articles, websites and more. This month the roundup is a collection of typography, design, UX, wayfinding and data visualization design. If you have anything you want to share please use the contact form to send information for future episodes of SignSphere. Enjoy reading!

Arrow & Icons Magazine

The niche market wayfinding and environemental graphic design is growning on the internet, many companies start their own blog and startups in the field are emerging, visit the wayfinding and design blogs below to be updated with the latest information in this field.

signsphere 2009 inspiration

Arrows & Icons is an online magazine devoted to the field of Environmental Graphic Design. It is a place where designers of any experience level can come together to read, learn, share ideas, and engage in community centered around a common passion.

Operated by Ryan Lascano he shares his knowledge and from the fellow contributors, a great blog.

Some of its previous highlights:

What is environmental graphic design?
New Jersey wayfinding, guest article by Kelly Bennett and Amy Rees
Visit the website Arrows & Icons or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Society for Environmental Graphic Design

signsphere 2009 inspiration

The global community of people working at the intersection of communication design and the built environment.

The Society for Environmental Graphic Design has a long history on providing quality industry news through their magazine and community. The worldwide highly appreciation for the members and staff has put the SEGD on top of the information source. The blog is a constant update on subjects such as EGD, Typography, Design, Architecture, Communication and more.

Visit the blog of SEGD or subscribe to the RSS feed.

ID/Lab wayfinding blog

signsphere 2009 inspiration

ID/Lab wayfinding blog is a place to exchange ideas about wayfinding, placemaking, human factors science and environmental graphic design.

ID/Lab an Australian based wayshowing consultancy firm and good frieds of designworkplan recently released a blog about their field of work. Looking forward reading more about their philosophy on wayshowing.

Previous highlights:

Thingfinding-Where is this place?
Visit the ID/Lab blog or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Johnny Holland Magazine

Interaction Design (IxD) is the study of devices with which a user can interact. The practice typically centers around embedding information technology into the ambient social complexities of the physical world. Wikipedia

signsphere 2009 inspiration

All Johnny talks about is focused on one aspect: interaction. He believes that this is the most important part in communication. Instead of focusing on the means by which we communicate we have to think of cause and effect.

Johnny Holland is great website about all that involves interaction design, user experience design, methods & theory, physical interaction and much more. With over 20 experienced writers from all over the world Johnny Holland is a great information resource.

Visit Jonny Holland Magazine or subscribe to the RSS feed.

UX Magazine

signsphere 2009 inspiration

UX Magazine was created to deliver a central place to discuss the critical disciplines that all enhance user experience. Extraordinary user experiences should be the goal of every interaction you deliver to your users at any level.

UX Magazine hold a great archive of user experience articles that apply to design, interaction, technology, strategy and more.

Visit UX Magazine or subscribe to the RSS Feed.

idsgn (new) typography and design blog

Typography and design is everywhere and designers use typography as a tool to express the visual communication. There are many many blogs about this field of expertise but some startups really gets my attention.

signsphere 2009 inspiration

idsgn is a new blog about the things we see and enjoy (or sometimes hate) as designers. We like to talk about graphic design, branding, typography, and sometimes we might post a video or two.

idsgn has a hightl inspirational level of bringing articles into the blog, with detailed and up-to-date resource information they know what they are talking about. Great new blog added to my RSS reader.

Visit idsgn (new) design blog or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Information Visualizing: Infosthetics

Latelty I have been really into information graphics and the visualizing design, making information readable and understandable for large audiences. There are several great blog that I found that share information about how to design information. Below you will find a list of inspirational websites in the field on information visualizing.

signsphere 2009 inspiration

Inspired by Lev Manovich’s definition of “information aesthetics”, this weblog explores the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization.

Infosthetics is a great showcase of information design and visualization, with examples of showing complex information, Infosthetics is a great place to gain inspiration from.

Visit the website infosthetics or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Information is beautiful

signsphere 2009 inspiration

David McCandless from Information is beautiful is interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath. Or, failing that, it can just look cool

Information is beautiful says it all and the blog goes deeper into sharing information, ideas, knowledge and data. With many inspirational examples of showing complex information in a easy to read and understandable design.

Visit Information is Beautiful or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Web Trend Map

signsphere 2009 inspiration

The Web Trend Map community curates meaningful link trends by choosing sources they trust.

Founded by informationArchitects this great visualization website shows trustworhty links by Twitter users. The users can create maps where they place their trusted Twitter friends on, the system tracks the tweets and puts them in a top trending links.

Visit the website Webtrendmap and be sure to visit designworkplan webtrendmap

make this simple

signsphere 2009 inspiration

seethismakesense aims to seek out the worst examples of confusing information

make this simple is a new website about information design fails, they show an image of a map, instructions, letters, signage or related information design and the community can have their say on the design and if it should be redesigned. Looking forward seeing a good interactive talk comming from make this simple.

Visit the website make this simple or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Enjoy reading

Thank you for reading designworkplan, if you enjoy this content please subscribe to the free RSS feed to get the fresh articles in your favourite news reader. Please let me know your favourite inspiration resource and I’ll put it in Sign-Sphere next month, submit information via contact. Thank you & enjoy reading.