THE ISSUE

He has to renew his drivers license. He wants to to know where, how much, and if they accept credit cards.

THE PROCESS / THE PROBLEM

First question: MO.gov, department of transportation, or department of revenue?

MO.gov?

Home page.

There is a lot going on there. Scrolling images. More images to manually scroll through to see links. Three youtube videos. A bit much.

I’ll try online services. Ok, under More Services I’ll try Driver’s License Office.

Ah, the Dept of Revenue page. Ok, Driver License.

“Renew” is listed on the page once, in the exciting heading “Do you need to obtain or renew a driver license, nondriver identification card or permit? You’ve found the front door to all the information you may need about driver licenses, …”

Nowhere else. No links to click.

Recapping real world clicks to find out how to renew a Missouri Drivers License:

Mo.gov > Online Services > More Services > Driver’s License Office > Drivers License (on new website) and nothing yet.

Note, this is also where googling “MO drivers license renewal” takes you.

Drivers Licensing Checklist? Scroll down a bit and see this:

“Renewal 

Acceptable documents for Proof of Name, Date of Birth, and Place of Birth, Proof of Social Security Number, and Proof of Missouri Residential Address.”

Give up.

LETS SEE HOW IT SHOULD BE

Gov.uk won 2013 Design of the year.

“”You shouldn’t come to the website and say ‘wow, look at the graphic design!,’” Terrett says. “You should come to the website to find out what the minimum wage is.”

3 clicks. Everything I need to know.

I spent 2 hours yesterday watching a man float in a balloon. It’s been three years ( ha! Exactly to the day today!) since I was that captivated by a balloon. Then it was a weather ballon reported to be carrying a boy, floating with the wind, being followed by news helicopters.

As cool as it was watching a dude float to the edge of space and jump, I’d rather watch this video looped for 2 hours. It’s a year old, but still the coolest video I’ve seen on the net.

Experience Human Flight – Melbourne Skydive Centre – by Betty Wants In & InfinityList

Exciting things are happening to the Sad Bird family. Soon there will be a little happy bird flying around the St. Louis headquarters. This brings a ton of joy, but also a ton of headache. I’m not worried about 4 a.m. feedings or anything like that. I’m worried about having my house overrun by primary colors. I imagine Einstein was raised among muted drab colors without the annoyance of Baby Einstein videos. And look at him; he turned out to be Einstein! Lack of inexpensive cool baby items may be a post for another day. This is about great baby design. Baby clothes!

My ideal brands to wear are Brooks Brothers and Gant. My Favorite runway shows are Prada men’s. Coats I want and can never pull the trigger on are Burberry. (See the Chicago fiasco of 2009*.) I don’t even come close to buying Burberry for me. But for my daughter, I have to talk myself out of it when I see them.

Their lil raincoats are the craziest things I’ve ever seen. It’s got the little tiny epaulettes, the gun flap, and the back rain shield. It’s all fitted and tailored. Imagine my little kid walkin’ around, going to Racs for lunch, wearing that yellow jacket with the collar up. If that’s not the coolest most adorable thing you’ve ever imagined, then I don’t know, get out of town.

In reality, it’s ridiculous and I can’t imagine spending $250 on a jacket that will get worn for 3 months. But, if you know anyone that is going to be having a kid soon, I’ll go halfsies on it.

-Rich

*I tried one on. Went back the next day and tried it on again. I couldn’t do it.  I was not married, didn’t own a home**, had disposable income, wouldn’t have missed the money too bad back then. I didn’t buy it and 3 years later can’t stop thinking about.

**Look at how young, fresh, and handsome I was back then. Can you believe the picture on the right is just 3 years later? Marriage, a house, and kid on the way take its toll man.

Now thats something. I guess that detail is why Volkswagen is das unofficial automobile of Sad Bird Design.

Everytime then refrence one of their producs or movies I immediately want to create something for it. Once I found a company that had made some fake posters for Seinfelds fake movies I thought, I have to make my favorite.

Another one I really want to do is Sack Lunch.

While not my favorite character on the show, Kramer has had his moments. Drinking scotch and making a jingle for Hennigans was Kramer at his best.

If you really like, you can get the shirt, too!

-Rich

Full size portion of header:

Each quarter they’ll be able to feature a main article at the top (In this case, an introduction from the Optometrist). A number of secondary articles may appear below accompanied by an image (vector graphics by me, or real photography) to the left.

We decided MailChimp was the best service for their needs. They’ll be able to analyze the basics, like how many people opened the newsletter and how many links were clicked. A big plus for me, though, is that MailChimp automatically writes CSS inline to make sure their newsletter looks similar in any mail client (Gmail being the toughest to design for).

Width: 650px
Font: Helvetica (or Arial, sorry Windows users) with Georgia Italic for the tagline
First Issue: January 2011
Newsletter Service: MailChimp

Here is more of the newsletter:

Sill working on the layout a bit and proper graphics to match the text.

- Randy

Having a cool fiancée means I get a lot of say in the overall look of pretty much all of the wedding related things. For the most part it’s me saying “no” to a lot of ornamentation and yes to simple and traditional. Honestly, I’m pretty lucky that she has a similar aesthetic. Or, at least, also enjoys mine. Which means I get to use a lot of Futura!

I think I enjoyed making these directions the most. The goal for the invitation packet was to try and capture the feeling of the ’60s but keep it updated and modern – not to look like a prop from Mad Men. The invitations, reply cards, and directions are all printed on ivory colored paper or cardstock which adds to the old effect but is still in the tradition of wedding invitations created today. I’m happy with the results.

I ordered our business cards with a couple different options. I can’t imagine not ordering more, as I’ve always thought business cards or calling cards are cool. These are the first of, I’m sure, many to come.

Sad Bird Design StandardIssue/1

Its all printed with the bird, our physical location in the world, and our footprint on the web.

Sad Bird Design SpecialIssue/1 (also seen in first image)

I also got a bunch of blank cards to stamp the bird and name on. It makes for a cool look. The bird, alone, sitting in the empty void of the card, is showing us his sadness. Then, on the reverse is the name and locale.

The blank cards actually came from the idea of hand writing each card as I gave it out. I still think it is a cool idea.

-Rich