A few months ago, in celebration of their 40th anniversary, Starbucks announced a refresh of their corporate identity. When people imagine a refresh to a corporate identity, many conjure up memories of the Gap logo fiasco of 2010. But not all refreshes meet with such opposition and sometimes, they can actually elevate the brand to a new level. We think Starbucks has achieved this with their new identity and here’s why it’s one of the brands we love. When Starbucks opened its first store in 1971, the image of the company was quite different. Fitting with the theme of their principle product,...

Having experienced first hand how a graduate education in design differs from an undergraduate education in design (the former tends to be research and theory oriented while the latter tends to be focused on developing particular skills), there has become apparent to me a very important “chain yanking” issue that seems to be often overlooked at the undergraduate level: an in depth understanding of the concept of usability. As someone who designs media where high user interaction is essential the success of the work (I’ll elaborate upon this further later in this discourse), usability is a concept...