AgroKrag Graphic Design/Illustration, Web Design, Web Marketing

Cuil (pronounced “Cool”) has recently gained much attention due to the “all-star” management/development team which consists of former Google and Alta-Vista personnel.  I think they missed the boat in terms of creating a Google competitor, or a decent search engine in general, but I’m not so sure that is their objective.  Let me explain.  First off, let’s look at the homepage below:

Crisp, clean, to the point.  Looks like an “edgy” Google.  Makes you want to search just to see what comes next.  From a design standpoint, this isn’t so bad.  But then again, how hard is it to design a typographic logo with a search bar underneath?

Now let’s look at the results page.  A search for “graphic design”

Again, very attractive.  Looks strikingly similar to Apple’s website.  As for the results in general, not so much.  There is no way that the general public is going to buy into the way the results are displayed.  People like hierarchy (as much as they’ll say they don’t), and these results just don’t give you that.  Sure, the site in the top left is #1, but where do we go from there?

So what is their real objective?  Sell out.  The recent tech news has been swamped with Microsoft-Yahoo deals, Google-Yahoo deals, etc.  Perfect time for a seasoned crew to build up an attractive engine, make some cash, and bail.  Let’s wait and see.

Since I started designing I have been leaning more towards illustrating the images used.  However, today, I decided that I would use an actual photo and see what I could come up with.  I’ve been stuck trying to figure out what the look and feel of SnapMyLife should be for months now.  Ideas have come and gone.  It is tricky designing much of anything when the product revolves around UGC, so I finally bit the bullet and just went for something fun.

This girl is just having fun, no more no less.  Ideally these would be the types of things people would send into the site, we encourage people to go out and try to capture the most interesting part of their day. It’s all about expressing yourself through your camera phone and having a good time while doing so.

The effects I used in Photoshop are nothing new to the avid users but I like to think that they have blended together fairly seemlessly.  Also the creation of custom brushes is one of the most important skills to learn as a photoshop user…and I just started doing it.  A lifesaver.

I’d love to hear some feedback on this one.

For most designers music plays an integral role in your daily work.  We all need it to keep us company mentally while we are glued to the screen all day.  The influence this practice has on us is simple to see when you step back and remember what you were listening to during the design of a particular piece.

I for one run into the issue of never knowing exaclty what I want to listen to so I just shuffle the iTunes and hope something good pops up.  This works only some of the time and really sort of distracts me.  So instead, lately, I have been choosing a full album and running with it during “concept” time.  The consistancy of one artist helps you focus and hone in on what you are trying to accomplish.

It is difficult to find great music that can inspire your designs, or at least strike up some ideas, so I want to leave this board open to suggestions and recommendations.

My contribution will be this:

Brad Sucks is an indie rock outfit that I know very little about, all I know is that the music itself puts me in a strangely creative state.  I’m not sure if this is attributable to the un-conventional nature of the music or just the sound of it.  Either way they are a nice find and I think they can help.

*Click on the image and you can download the entire album for free.

So….What inspires you??