Minimally Minimal

Everything at http://www.minimallyminimal.com/ website - I wish Andrew Kim still maintain his blog as he used to be. Also I've learned recently about https://androidarts.com/ and still browsing through it - such a great inspiration source!

Wait, that's Andrew Kim?! I love that guy, this is fantastic news. http://minimallyminimal.com/

Kim is also an outstanding reviewer of all kinds of gadgets (phones, headphones, cars, camera's, heck, even coffee grinders) paired with great photography -> http://minimallyminimal.com

I agree, J != I I'm a fan of the minimalism but as high caliber as I was expecting. http://www.minimallyminimal.com/ is one of my favorites.

Mainly for the external case design, which is still top-notch. http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/apple-isight Great features too in the magnetic monitor attachment and the fancy aperture to close and turn off the camera. The low resolution is somewhat appealing, in a retro way. If I'm going to be using a crappy external webcam it's cool that the image looks like an early 2000s PowerBook.

First time I had heard this: a pressurized cylindrical container pushes outward with equal force in all directions. This is crucial for pressurized beverages. My favorite bottle redesign (http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2010/3/15/ecocoke.html) was done on Coca-Cola and had a similar "sqround" shaped bottle, but I don't think he considered the pressure in the bottle.

A few portfolios I like to refer back to as good examples of different approaches: - mason.js-style grid of experiments and projects, filterable: http://hakim.se/ – direct links to demos - short-description + screenshots: http://www.robbiemanson.com/ - a full blog post per project: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/

Andrew Kim has a great unsolicited redesign of the American Ballot system that considered users primarily and doesn't lean too heavy on using the brand as a canvas. http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/america-elect Teensy bit bland for my tastes but it goes to show there are designer out there who do some quality redesigns.

What I particularly hate about MS branding right now is those stupid, unnecessary (TM) and (R)'s that follow names of their products... Just look at this picture for God's sake: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/microsoft/m19.jpg?… or head over to their website: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx It's ridiculous. So "Windows" is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Big deal, but why put it after every single mentioning of the name?! Doesn't it bother you ( = MS marketing guys) to see little dots (they're so little that you can't even say if they're (tm) or (r)'s!) after product names? Isn't it ugly in your opinions? Apple doesn't do it. Google doesn't either. Oracle does it too, however. Congrats, MS; you're as uncool as a database company.

There's lots of criticism in this thread regarding the practicality of the design, but this is simply a link bait post based on a simple prototype by a design student done as a personal project. I've been following Andrew Kim on his blog for some time now and I think he's an excellent designer who likes to regularly challenge status quo thinking through his designs (i.e. http://www.minimallyminimal.com/minimally-minimal/2010/3/15/eco-coke-b… The kid is still just a student, but has a ton of potential. I'm looking forward to what he produces when he finishes school and goes out into industry.

> I will never understand why Google has never come up with a viable marketing strategy for Android, to be fashionable in its own different way. Disclaimer: ex-Google programmer, fine arts backgrounds. Google's not really the place cool and edge art students want to go. It pays well, but most who care about design would take a paycut to work at Apple. If compensation was equal, there's a hundred other companies art students would rather work at. Lego, Ikea, Dyson. Much like the rest of Google's bureaucracies, the designers are Google are career designers and not necessarily students of the arts. I feel like during the Marissa Meyer era Google had the opportunity to attract design talent. Now it's just a megacorp with MBAs and McKinsey style management. I remember during the early 2010s reading an article about how someone created a portfolio of stocks based on companies that innovated on UI designer and this outperformed the indices. At the time, it felt like an obvious choice for Google to included in this investment hypothesis. Imagine investing in IBM for their design. What's interesting is that Microsoft managed to stay relevant. For instance, the person leading the design of the Xbox One was famed for running a blog on minimal industrial design: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/. It seemed like an "outside hire" in the sense that it was the tech industry hiring someone for their design talent (as opposed to years of experience as a tech designer), straight out of…

I'm glad all the MSFT research initiatives are getting attention and/or the development stage. There's so much new amazing things to make the future so shiny and great. As Steve Jobs pointed out, MSFT's overall design and communications have and are still... astoundingly nerdy. Yet this new MSFT, one that notes they made something with WUV!, is such a departure from Micro$oft of yore. This is almost... dare I say, embryonic of an earnest attempt at something new? Almost as if this new MSFT is a startup of a corporation in a landscape dominated by the most valuable corporation on earth (AAPL) and the most useful corporation on earth (GOOG) and the most cutthroat corporation on earth (AMZN). I imagine in another year or two there will be a major overhaul of Microsoft's design process to bring about cohesion. I'm hoping the likes of hiring Andrew Kim (http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html) and other young talents will greatly influence that as it is sorely needed, much like how Google invested much into Matías Duarte and Material design. Wow, imagine that. When the old question was can Apple be Google faster than Google can be Apple and now it's can Microsoft be Google faster?

Yes, you might be right about the volume. I was looking at the buttons here [1] but the volume one looked more like a round push button than a dial. I guess it could be a dial As to the ring around the number, well I'm more confused going back and looking at it again. Sometimes, like [2] it's a single colour, and others, like [3] it's divided into multiple segments. 12/14mph is slow, so I'd expect to see the ring extend not as far as it does. I'd expect it to extend that far around for speeds like 70mph Another thought - the little mpg/regen graph is prominent but largely useless. However, if speed and acceleration were added it could be a very useful tool in working out which driving conditions give best economy [1] http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/doko/d13.jpg?__SQU… [2] http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/doko/f07.jpg?__SQU… [3] http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/doko/d10.jpg?__SQU…

The iPod Hi-Fi! I still have one of those. Though it’s connected to, also defunct, Chromecast Audio for multi room audio setup. Here’s someone reviewing the speaker: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/apple-ipod-hi-fi

Andrew Kim did a famous [1] rebrand of Microsoft [2], and then landed a job there because of it [3]. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4195208 2: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html 3: https://www.theverge.com/2013/1/19/3895444/andrew-kim-the-next-microso…

Microsoft hired that guy, Andrew Kim, the designer who did the rebrand (if you don't know what I'm talking about: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html)… but he's only in the Xbox division. My opinion: they need to make him branding dictator for a month.

He used to have a pretty popular blog, and he got hired at Microsoft after this: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html If you want to see his design process applied to a car, there's this: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2012/7/22/toyota-doko.html Both were personal projects done in his spare time as far as I know.

The employee in question is also the person that made that [Microsoft rebrand concept](http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html) from a while back.

http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/issey-miyake-to-by-tokujin-yoshio… ($1400)

This one is kinda bad. But this one from 2012 i like far better : http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html

Here's a link that was posted upthread. http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2010/3/15/ecocoke.html All the text is in jpegs. There are many reasons why that's stupid, but "hey, ima designer so fuck you."

"Flat UI" seems like an immense reluctance to give Microsoft credit for their work on Metro. I am reminded of this definition of Microsoft's Metro aesthetic by Andrew Kim: http://static.squarespace.com/static/50271a61c4aab6c54f9af5ee/5028140e… ~ http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html

Link to "The Next Microsoft": http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html And its HN comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4195208

The square Coke bottle concept was designed by Andrew Kim: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2010/3/15/ecocoke.html It allows for 1-2 additional bottles in the space it takes to transport 4 round bottles.

I wonder if that independent Microsoft re-design seen on HN a few weeks ago - http://www.minimallyminimal.com/journal/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.ht… - had anything to do with this.

I prefer the windows 8 logo much more: http://www.fastcodesign.com/multisite_files/codesign/imagecache/inline… The unsolicited redesign "slate" logo is cool too: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2012/7/3/the-next-microsoft.html

Regarding your confusion over the logo brands (which I shared in), I think some of the choices were made to distance Surface and Windows Phone from the Windows brand. This is why in this concept, Windows Phone is "surface phone", and it uses a simple slate icon rather than a double slate that would refer to the Windows brand. At least that's what I got out of it. Still a little confused. EDIT: I think this image might clear it up: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/microsoft/m10.jpg?… It appears that the single slate logo is Surface, the double slate logo is Windows, and the intersecting slates are Office.

The only thing I liked over the current ones was the palette in the first WP screenshot. Left top one on http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/microsoft/m26.jpg?…

Not the 'simplest cell phone', it does not exist, and the author of the article is bleeding with excess bias "With his über perfected skills in design..." - also, this article is from July 2010. Not sure on the relevance, this is just a conceptual art project from a design student. ref: http://www.minimallyminimal.com/minimally-minimal/2010/7/11/htc-1.html

How to market your design firm / you as a designer: a) Be a good designer. b) Passionately redesign objects that people use every day. Kim did cell phones, Coca-Cola bottles and voting ballots before ringing the "all of the internet" bell w/his Windows redesign (1). c) Show people the work and fire it off to blogs along with a pre-baked headline "15 year old redesigns beautiful flip phone". I remember watching 37signals employ this exact strategy years ago before they found their SAAS niche redesigning "a bank", FedEx, and others. In fact their initial SAAS audience grew largely out of the design community that followed their blog. Dustin Curtis's redesign of American Airlines is another fun example (3) (1) http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2010/7/11/htc-1.html http://www.minimallyminimal.com/2010/3/15/ecocoke.html http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/america-elect (2) http://37signals.com/better.php (3) http://dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html