I created a concept around the phrase “The art and science of app creation” in which a series of a images are animated on the homepage to revealing an insight of what goes into creating an iOS or Android app.

Illustrations and Animations

I created the illustrations in CMYK to create of overlay effect that features in many of the them. I then carried this theme through the entire website.

I hired the talented Ryan Taylor to do the dev on this project. For the animations on the homepage I put together a simple choreography and Ryan painstakingly animated the illustrations using CSS keyframe animation. No mean feat!

Responsive Design

The site is also responsive for an optimal mobile experience.

You can check out a bunch of screen shots below and view the site here.

It was great to have the chance and do some illustration for print. It’s weird, even though posters at a bus stand don’t have the same reach as the web, there’s something strangely satisfying about having your work in print like this.

Here are the poster designs below.

Ryan hired me to design and build the front-end of Treehouse. Alan Johnson (Developer) had the mammoth task of making it all work. I designed the style guide for the badges and then handed the actual badge design over to Allison Grayce. The whole Treehouse team was involved in making this a success! We also brought in Neil Kinnish who did browser/device testing and bug fixing.

I designed the entire app in the browser, mainly because the app is responsive and it’s easier to design in the browser. It’s still possible to design in Photoshop and hand work to a developer but today more than ever, designers need to know how to code and understand the principles of responsive web design.

Something else I used on this project was Sass. With Sass you can add nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance etc. Your .scss files are translated to well-formatted, standard CSS using the command line tool or a web-framework plugin. It generally makes life a bit easier, especially on larger stylesheets.

Anyway, here are a few screenshots from Treehouse. You can view Treehouse here.

I’ve just designed the new Kicksend homepage!

Firstly I redesigned their logo. The typeface used in the is Appetite by Dzianis Serabrakou. I then heavily customised the letter K to create the ‘flaming’ logo icon. I really wanted to avoid using some sort of ‘file’ type image/icon for the logo as that would make it indistinguishable from other products in the same sort of sphere.

The guys at Kicksend wanted a design that quickly communicated the benefits of using Kicksend. They also needed a bold design with a strong visual impact. I always find that using a simple and bold colour palette really helps create a strong impact with a design. It’s tempting to keep adding colours and graphical details to a design but again I think this dilutes the essence of the design and the message you’re trying to convey.

Finally, the page is responsive for the viewing pleasure of those on mobile devices. HTML & CSS by the very talented Neil Kinnish.

This was a really fun project to work on and the guys at Kicksend were amazing to work with!

You can view the new Kicksend homepage here.

It’s going to be a bit of a departure from my day job of Graphic/ Web Designer and Illustrator but I can’t wait! Those of you who know me will know I’m pretty much an Instagram addict, so an assignment like this is perfect for me.

I’ll be photographing behind the scenes and capturing the atmosphere of the build up to the main event as well as the show itself. If you’re interested in seeing my pictures from the event, then follow @burberry & @mikekus on Instagram.

What is GiftRocket

GiftRocket is the invention of Nicolas Baum, Kapil Kale and Jonathan Pines. With GiftRocket you can buy a friend a gift card to any shop, bar, cinema, coffee shop anywhere in the world.

You can either email them the gift or send it via Facebook. The site is integrated with Facebook and if you give the site permission, GiftRocket it will pull in your friends from Facebook for you to choose who to send a GiftRocket to.

For a person to redeem a GiftRocket they need to go to the business location. For example, if I have a GiftRocket for my local pub – I go to the pub, get out my smartphone, open up my GiftRocket email and press ‘Redeem’. GiftRocket uses my location to check I’m actually at the pub and when my location is confirmed I get my gift. The GiftRocket amount is transferred into my Paypal account and I pay as normal.

It means you can buy your friend a gift card for something they’re really into and that actually means something to them!

The Design

I was responsible from creating the GiftRocket brand/logo, designing the main website and mobile site.

My aim was to create a site that had a strong brand, was fun, vibrant and super easy to use. The site is actually more of an application than a website, so there was a fine balance to strike between creating a fun and meaningful visual design and a simple and easy to use UI.

I think GiftRocket is a great idea and I really hope it takes off! It was a really fun project and the guys at GiftRocket were amazing to work with.

I’ve included various screenshots from the website and mobile site in this post and you can check out the finished live site here: GiftRocket

Zero App

When Ian and Ben came to me, we talked at length about what we wanted from a task app. It had to be super quick to add tasks, have the ability to add notes, add reminders and sync with iCal.

I was surprised at how different the experience of designing the UI for an iPhone app was. It’s interesting because you’re far more restricted in where you can place certain elements of the UI. There’s no room for error. If you need to add an addition feature at a later stage without having thought about it from the beginning you risk having to completely change the design of the app. It was definitely something I enjoyed and would be happy to do more of.

As well as designing the app itself I also designed the Zero logo and website. I always enjoy creating a visual style/ identity for products like apps, because they are what you make them. There is a lot of creative freedom which is nice, especially compared to designing the app itself!

Anyway, If you want to try Zero app, it’s available in the app store now.

View the Zero website.

As part of the talk I realigned the design of the Innocent homepage. I say realigned very specifically, as this is not a redesign. I’ve simply realigned the content of the current homepage. I didn’t speak to Innocent beforehand, so the realignment is based purely on my knowledge and experience of the Innocent products and brand. (I didn’t mean for that bit to sound like a disclaimer!).

Innocent are a fun and creative company with a strong and recognisable brand. They have a lust for life, promote healthy living and are environmentally conscious. These values, brand attributes and personality don’t come across on their current site. I had a go at realigning their homepage to better reflect the Innocent brand.

If you haven’t heard my talk, I started covering this subject matter in my recent 24Ways article.

Anyway, what I really wanted to share with you is this time-lapse video I made (with the help of Greg Annandale) of me realigning the homepage design. Check it out below. Music for the film was written and performed by Tony Kus.

Below is a screenshot the realigned Innocent homepage and the below that the current Innocent homepage that I worked from.

Some shots from the book

Here are a few spreads from the book. I’ve also been lucky enough to have some of my own work featured in the book. If you’d like to purchase the book, you can buy it from Gestalten. It’s a big book packed with loads of amazing graphic design.

As some of you will know I’m a big Instagram fan. I’ve decided to hold an Instagram photowalk here in Bath on Saturday  26th February. The afternoon will consist of a photowalk around Bath, a lot of Instagram related chat and a couple of beers at The Hop Pole in Bath.

If you’re at all interested in Instagram or taking photographs, it should be a fun afternoon. Anyway, if you can make it, I’d love to see you there!

What you need to know

We’ll be meeting at 2pm on Saturday 26th February by the traditional British telephone box on the corner of Upper Church St and Brock St. This is at the East side of the Royal Crescent. You can’t miss it. If you take a look on Google Street view you’ll see the phone box under the tree.

From here we’ll head out on our walk for a couple of hours or so before heading to The Hop Pole on the Upper Bristol Road for a couple of pints and a bit of a social.

If you’re interested I’d love to see you there. If you have any questions just drop me a mail and I’ll get back to you.

Follow me on Twitter for updates. I’ll include updates in my Instagram feed too. My username is Mikekus.