As the 2010 Winter Olympics draw to a close, I can’t help but reminisce about all the lovely, Olympic inspired designs I’ve stumbled across recently. Among my favorites are those in this collection of designs that whimsically parallel the spirit of the games in the form of print assets, television spots and throwback posters.

While poking around designerfix.com, I also found this list of wonderful Google Olympic logos from past to present. The latest are definitely the greatest.

And even though the logo for the 2012 games looks like something the 80’s threw up (sorry London, it’s hideous), I’m still looking forward to seeing what other goodness designers piece together to celebrate the world of Olympic sports.

In giving some guidance to a neighbor on his Stapleton Helpdesk logo, I eagerly recommended Marina for the type face. It’s in the Serif family of fonts (just barely) with tiny points protruding from the edges of each character giving it a subtle elegance that screams “We’re legit. We’re trustworthy. We’re good at what we do.”

One of the things I pay very close attention to (and enjoy the most) when putting together logotype designs is pairing the organization’s personality and brand message with the right font. Some of the stronger dyads that come to mind are Google’s (Catull), Apple’s (Garamond Light Condensed), Twitter’s (Pico Alphabet), and Yahoo!’s every so memorable and brilliant custom font.

Here’s some more “fresh and extremely useful” fonts to help inspire your next logo design endeavor.

More than anything, this drive shaft powered bicycle is a work of art. The sharp angles, solid white, matte finish and hub-less wheels exude industrial design hotness.

And as practical (and beautiful) as the bike may seem, I don’t think drive shaft technology will ever replace the tried and true chain configuration that has carried bicycling through the last 130 years. Besides, where do you expect BMXers to attach pegs for gnarly rail grinds?

Check out more photos from Falling Pixel here.

I just came across this collection of fantastically clever advertisements from around the globe. Take note that most of them are aimed at foreign demographics, likely due to the fact that too many of us in the States might be offended by some of the visuals. It’s sad, really, to think that such a progressive nation as the good ‘ol U.S.A. is still so sheltered from edgy concept art and marketing metaphors.

Or is it something else? It irks me to think we’ve become a culture that’s just not clever enough to “get” these ads and barely have the wit to react to dumbed-down, kid-friendly versions. *sigh*

Nonetheless, hope you enjoy.

I spend a lot of time thinking about CTAs (or call to actions) over the course of an average work week. My team puts together advertising units, widgets and mini-site mock ups almost daily for big name brands and it’s important to create CTAs that are clear, eye catching and effective in converting to clicks. Some of the things we pay attention to mirror the tips mentioned here but there are a few more things to keep in mind that can help ensure you’re designing an effective CTA:

1) Size matters – make sure the CTA is big but not obnoxious. I’ve seen designs that go so big that the CTA ends up resembling an ad unit rendering it invisible to less savvy users. Find a good balance between your buttons and the surrounding elements but always strive to make it stand out, without scaring the user way.

2) Shape it up – Making your CTA look like a nice, inviting, rounded corner button makes sense about 90% of the time, but if you’re designing within an existing site or ad unit be mindful of the existing style. Sometimes, a link may be your best bet rather than using something resembling a button or badge. Whatever you end up doing, remember to use high contrasting colors to draw the eye and mouse.

3) Stick it where it counts – Positioning the CTA is probably the most important thing to consider. Remember that a user’s eye will generally track from left to right, top to bottom so the top-right portion of whatever you’re designing will be your hot spot. It often seems natural to place the CTA at the right/bottom-right of your design, but we’ve found that even with something like a 728×90 ad unit the CTA on the far left will perform more effectively. This is an excellent example of good positioning. Learn it.

After 10 years with their ever so familiar and friendly logo, Expedia has unveiled an updated look to take them into the new decade. And it’s good.

I really like that they ditched the cartoony feel. Like many of their users, Expedia is all grown up and have a good enough market share to badge up with a more professional, matter-of-factly logo that gives off a more sophisticated vibe. Or maybe it’s simply the fact that it resembles the Xbox 360 logo. Either way, good marks.

Their new tag line, on the other hand, definitely lacks a some creativity and doesn’t support the streamlined, classic and timeless look they’re going for. To me, “Where You Book Matters” comes off a bit desperate. Why not roll with something strong? Something like “It’s Where You Book”. Stick to your guns! Own online booking!

Infographics are visual representations of data (often found in print media) that help explain complex information more quickly than one could using only words. I recently came across this collection of infographic wizardry and it took me back to my days at the Rocky Mountain News where I had the opportunity to work among VERY talented artists.

I became friends with many of the newsroom artists including Illustrator Dan Wiegand (who is still doing awesome illustration work at the San Diego Union-Tribune), Sam Gibbs, Andres Fernandez and the design department lead Charles Chamberlain. Every week these creative forces of nature would pump out amazing work and most notably, in my opinion, killer infographic illustrations.

Time to holler at these folks via Facebook to find out if their talents are being put to good use.

It’s fun to think about what kind of design trends we’ll see with portfolios in 2010. With full on adoption of CSS3 and HTML5 just over the horizon, I sense there will be a lot of experimentation with these technologies and plenty of jQuery sprinkled in.

It also seems like bright, 80’s neon colors against dark backgrounds is making waves with portfolio designs and the ‘Apple’ chrome look is on its way out. I also think we’ll see a continued increase in image sizes as larger screen resolutions become more standard and I hope we’ll see more creative treatments like panoramic background side-scrolling and bubbly, fun, and colorful illustrative treatments.

I personally like the versatility of (and simplicity) of having my portfolio slide show accessible via lightbox on ever changing WordPress skins. Some of which I plan to build from scratch…if I ever find the time.

Here’s even more portfolio design trends to keep an eye out for in 2010.

Some of my best designs (not speaking subjectively, but based on quantitative interaction metrics) come from spending a fair amount of my time literally drawing out prototypes and use-cases. Yes, with a pencil and paper. It’s easy to think through the functionality of a site in your head and assume you have it all worked out, but it’s never wasted effort to take things one step further. Or two, or three.

By putting pencil to paper, an Interaction Designer will spend more time putting himself in the user mind-set and create a bigger window into understanding the properties of their user’s capabilities. In a sense, it allows you to become an architect that brainstorms then refines countless drafts of his building to ensure all the beams and framing will hold up to the physical traffic, customizations, and decorations that future tenants will bring.

“The application of this understanding to the design, development and deployment of systems and services”  — a.k.a. Human Factor — is all the rage for resume buffers. But as a manager looking to hire a real interaction specialist it’s almost too easy to spot the less talented that claim to be UI/UX experts showing such flawed designs in their portfolio. All of which could have been made far more intuitive and useful had they only spent the time with even an online prototyping/mock-up tool.

In some cases, sketching out website pages and functionality as I envision it has lent itself to providing inspiration for design elements. Take a look at these and you’ll see what I mean. And grab yourself some graph paper, a ruler and a nice no. 2 pencil already.

The last week of the year brings a slew of best and worst lists. My favorite thus far: Best and Worst logos of 2009.

The winner: Aol.

And rightly so – what Aol. has done with their brand in as little as a month is no less than remarkable and their logotype redesign was rad. The subtle, san-serif type face against a myriad of clever background images speaks to the indefinite number of content topics that their new business model aims to deliver. Well done.

As much as I like what’s going on over in Tim Armstrong’s neck of the woods, it’s still not as cool as the logo redesign we’re working on over at Associated Content. Reveal coming soon!