http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/labnotes/index/ en edward.scherf@enhancedlabs.com Copyright 2009 2009-03-12T15:28:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/were_hiring/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/were_hiring/#When:14:28:00Z With the local US economy taking a major face plant over the past few months, many people have been asking “Are you guys feeling the hurt?” Fortunately for us, we’ve been lucky enough to avoid this downward spiral that has put many individuals and families here in the US in some really tough situations. Thankfully, over the last few months, we’ve had a significant spike in are already overflowing workload, which is why we are announcing some of our current job openings. With the local US economy taking a major face plant over the past few months, many people have been asking “Are you guys feeling the hurt?” Fortunately for us, we’ve been lucky enough to avoid this downward spiral that has put many individuals and families here in the US in some really tough situations. Thankfully, over the last few months, we’ve had a significant spike in are already overflowing workload, which is why we are announcing some of our current job openings. We are looking for driven, talented, and creative individuals that live and breath a passion for design perfection. Innovators in the industry. Enhanced Labs was founded and built by designers; our creative roots and passion for design have helped drive the company to become one of the leaders in the industry, and we’re looking for someone that wants to be a part of that. If you share the same passion and ambitions, or know someone that does, please send a resume and portfolio to: management at enhancedlabs.com Web Designer 3+ years experience in creating websites using Adobe Photoshop Ability to design aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, and innovative designs in any requested style Knowledge of XHTML/CSS is recommended Keen eye for detail Passion Must provide portfolio Icon Designer 3+ years experience in Adobe Photoshop Ability to design according to Apple’s HIG or any other requested style Keen eye for detail and perspective Passion Available 20+ Hours per week Must provide portfolio Brand Identity Designer Ability to capture the marketing vision of clients Competence in developing innovative and strategic solutions Expertise in print advertising and logo design 3+ years experience in Illustrator and Photoshop General understanding of the use between CMYK and Pantone colors Keen eye for detail Good listening skills and ability to heed constructive criticism Must provide portfolio 2009-03-12T14:28:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/pry_system/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/pry_system/#When:23:20:00Z Creating an aluminum iconset. From inspiration to final icons. Creator of Pry System, Jonas Rask, shares some of his thoughts regarding his most ambitious set to date. Inspiration I often get asked ”Where do you get your inspiration for drawing icons?” The answer isn’t always a straightforward one, but mostly I draw what I see in my surrounding world. But how does this translate into making such a ”non-reallife” thing as computer folders? My inspiration for Pry came when looking at the wireless Apple aluminum keyboard. Turning your keyboard (if you’re fortunate to have such a thing) into the angle that Pry is drawn at, you can clearly visualize the bent aluminum without the keys thereby stating the obvious design reference. Creativity Very early in the Pry creation process I decided to go two ways with the set. • Have a super clean minimalist etched folder variant where the symbols are etched into the folders like on Apples default set. • Have a set with real life drawn out objects, where I could go nuts with details. This division allowed me to do some pretty crazy things. The obvious example being the grass cover that turned into a golf folder after seeing a Masters tournament on TV. This icon in all its 512x512 pixel glory is not exactly the obvious usable folder given Apples new minimalistic OS X Leopard UI approach. The fun of creating overlaying objects for me boils down to this: It keeps creativity flowing, cause I can use my everyday inspirations to do real life objects on digital folders.  On the other hand doing the etched folders gives you time to practice how to convey symbolism. This is icon designing in its purest form. Some would argue that the new direction in which Apple is taking its UI is limiting for creativity. It might hold true, but looking at a simplistic UI without too much clutter tends to up the users productivity. So I guess it’s a smart move. Apple has recently started doing icons as head-on perspective folders. This is beneficial for a lot of reasons that I will not get into here. But problem persists: It tends to limit creativity, cause you can no longer play with different styles. I simply chose to do perspective on Pry cause I really wanted to know if it would really work with all Leopards features (like Stacks and Coverflow). Second, I just think perspective folders look better. I think the end result with the close to 45degree angle works pretty well in Pry, but I’ll let the user be the judge of that. (Go ahead and take them for a Coverflow spin). Another point of doing icons for me personally, besides having some good old fun, is to challenge myself. Push myself a bit. Cause I would never improve otherwise. Doing 3d perspective folders in Photoshop really tested my abilities, and I learned so much along the way. So perspective or no perspective, that’s the question! Sizes Recently it has become quite the design fad to do complete perspective changes on the 32 x 32 pixel sizes and below. They mostly get turned into head on perspectives. I wanted to avoid that for 32 x 32 size with Pry, seeing that a 32 pixel squared canvas is more than plenty to convey real perspective. 16px is another matter. In list view, head on folders simply look sharper and cleaner. On the opposite end of the scale we find the new opportunities that Leopard brings. 512x512 pixels. I read in the Apple Human Interface Guidelines that the 512 resource should have its own detailing, and should be able to stand on its own. I took that literally, so I put in a lot of details at the 512. Turning off the extra details, as you descent through sizes is tedious but absolutely crucial for a great end result. A good example of this is the absolute necessity of a noise layer to make the 512 and 256 px sizes look like aluminum. This is not really noticeable at 128 px. So turning it off makes that size a bit more crisp and sharp. These were just some random ramblings about my newest icon set Pry. You can download it right here at the downloads section of Enhanced Labs, or you can go visit Jonas Rask Design 2008-08-20T23:20:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/enhancing_orbicules_macnification/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/enhancing_orbicules_macnification/#When:19:05:00Z Enhanced Labs got the opportunity to work with the creative minds behind Orbicule, the makers of “Undercover”, on their newest endeavor - “Magnification”. A few months ago, the creative minds behind the great laptop security application, Undercover, contracted Enhanced Labs to design the icons and user-interface elements for their newest endeavor - Macnification. This groundbreaking application allows users to organize, edit, analyze, and annotate microscopic images with simplicity and ease. Embracing the new features, visual effects, and capabilities of Leopard, Macnification molds a perfect combination of function and eye-pleasing usability. Challenge: Orbicule needed 1.) an application icon that was purposeful and elegant, that could also be used as it’s identity for print media, documentation, etc; 2.) Toolbar icons that illustrated, in some instances, medical functions that we had never heard of; and 3.) a powerful user-interface that captivated the user, but was still highly functional for it’s professional users. Solution: We first defined our color scheme, drawing inspiration from Apple’s default Leopard wallpaper, “Aurora.” We felt that this had an elegant professionalism about it and would be something to help these icons stick out in the crowd. It then came time to design the application icon. For this we wanted to keep it simple and purpose driven. A small stack of medical images accompanied by a wooden ruler for analyzing, and a objective lens from a microscope created a great combination allowing us to play with color and throw some eye candy in there for use at larger sizes. We really like how it turned out. Then it came time for the toolbar icons. There were multiple toolbars that would be displayed during different functions of the application, as well as a full screen editing mode. We worked closely with the developers as in some instances, terms and processes where out of our realm of knowledge. After some hard work we all felt they turned out great in the end. During development we saw some drastic changes in the aesthetics of the UI. We provided guidance and graphical elements to help bring a professional yet usable aesthetic to the application. The best part was seeing the application evolve from basic wire-framing objects to a full-blown UI. We really enjoyed it. Closing Remarks: We think the design and development of the application was a great success and we hope that Apple will feel the same as Orbicule goes on the hunt for an Apple Design Award. Be sure to check out the larger previews in the Enhanced Labs Showroom. 2008-05-07T19:05:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/microsoft_office_2008/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/microsoft_office_2008/#When:19:30:01Z The team takes a look at one of the biggest projects in Enhanced Labs history. Since December 2006 two of Enhanced Labs’ senior designers, Jonas Rask and Philipp Antoni, have been conducting lab work on one of the biggest projects in Enhanced Labs history. Hundreds of graphics were created for the long-awaited, latest version of the hugely popular application, including every imaginable icon size as well as myriads of miscellaneous UI elements. In very close collaboration with Han-yi Shaw, User Experience Lead Program Manager at MacBU, Enhanced Labs provided hundreds of cutting edge interface graphics that reflected the creative direction and visual language of the newest Office 2008 product. The challenges of creating this new version of Microsoft Office for Mac were as broad as they were multiple. Since Office 2004 was released there had been a huge progression in the quality of OS X interface graphics.  While keeping a distinct individual feel throughout the entire load of graphics needed for Office 2008, we constantly tried to one-up the expectations for great graphics on the Macintosh platform.  The result of our collaborative efforts is the most attractive, intuitive, and innovative version of Office for Mac to date. Now let’s all go out and buy Office ‘08 because it’s super-awesome and has our artwork! News 2008-01-15T19:30:01-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/macworld_2008/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/macworld_2008/#When:20:58:00Z An inside look into Macworld 2008 with Enhanced Labs. Tickets have been purchased, and we are all excited to be at Macworld 2008 to see the launch of Microsoft Office Mac 2008. Accompanying us on the trip is the CEO of csnglobal, Chris Nielsen. We are looking forward to what apple may reveal in the coming days. Monday, Jan 14th, we will be attending “A Day at the Office: Microsoft Office 2008”. We’ll keep you all posted! Day 1 Update: We sat in on the revealing of Microsoft Office 2008 :mac; which was well accepted by the crowd. Later we connected with Microsoft and made plans for dinner mid-week. That night we met up with MetaLab, Phill Ryu, and Mike Matas, and a few members from our team. There was a heated discussion on the morality of the MacHeist Project by a few individuals. A few left mad. The dinner itself was alright.. Steve Jobs keynote is tomorrow and we’re excited to see what apple is going to unveil. Day 2 Update: Standing in line outside the Moscone Center: West Hall in 44F weather at 4:30am isn’t exactly the most comfortable environment; but it was so worth it. I met up with the guys from the team; Luke Seeley, and Andrea from Doseido. Doors finally opened at 8:00am (4 hours later) and we all piled up inside to stand for another hour and a half. Finally we get inside the room where the grand-pooba Steve Jobs delivers his keynote. Apple announced various updates to the iphone, ipod touch, itunes, and the apple tv. The main focus of the whole keynote was the announcement of the new Macbook Air. The Macbook air i’d say is quite impressive. Its thin enough to fit inside of an 8x11 envelope, faster than most laptops in its class. Only downside is that they’re phasing out the optical disc drive. I do believe eventually one day they’ll go away; but i think its much too soon to start the slow phase out process. We later attended the Microsoft Blast Party. All I have to say is “dang there are a lot of people here!”. Day 3 Update: Today we all gathered back at the south hall and met with various software and hardware vendors. We ran into so many people I don’t even remember them all. I met Jasper Hauser, and Jorn Dijk from MadeBySofa. We also dropped by the Panic booth and chatted with Cabel from Panic. Later we ran into Cali Lewis from Geek Brief TV and watched behind the scenes as they shot their latest episode. Patrick Nortan stopped by for an interview. Around 7pm we met up with the MacBU and had dinner at XYZ - the food was great. Quickly after, we ran over to the Delicious Generation Party “The biggest party of macworld”. This was an interesting party. A lot of key people made their appearances. The party was catered. We all were talking inside a nice, warm building; and then all of a sudden everyone decides to go to “another party” which appeared to be outside (in the cold) of the same building. I spoke with a few people and then headed out. Blogging 2008-01-14T20:58:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/the_new_enhanced_labs/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/the_new_enhanced_labs/#When:23:23:00Z About the new Enhanced Labs We are proud to announce after nearly a year of hard work; the new version of Enhanced Labs is finally live! As the weeks progress we will continue to rollout new features of the Enhanced Labs website. Things to take note of: 1) Labnotes We now have a blog called Labnotes. Here you will find out inside information the projects we’re working on, tutorials and random observations from some of the lead designers in our firms. 2) Showroom Our showroom has been redesigned from the ground up. See our latest designs in a more fluid motion. 3) Downloads - Be apart of the Enhanced Labs community and give feedback on some of our latest downloads. 4) Coming Soon - We will soon have a client login area for all of you who want to take a look at your past/most recently ordered design work. We’ll keep you posted on this as soon as its live. 2008-01-09T23:23:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/ekisho/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/ekisho/#When:20:24:00Z Jonas Rask, releases his latest icon set Ekisho. This icon set comes packed with many high quality OS X icon replacements. Head over to his site to download it! A brand new edition of the Ekisho system Replacement set. The package includes new folder designs with the more Aqua’ish colorscheme. Also in the package are new Hardrive icons as well as a new optimized trash icon. 2006-12-25T20:24:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/the_real_christmas_05_reloaded/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/the_real_christmas_05_reloaded/#When:17:32:00Z A Christmas gift from Enhanced Labs. As a christmas Gift from Enhanced Labs, We decided to Add 7 Bonus Icons to the package, and Re-Release this icon set on christmas day. This icon set now includes 20 holiday icons. 2005-12-25T17:32:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/radium_drives/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/radium_drives/#When:01:54:00Z Mike releases an experiment; Classic iMac shaped HD Icons. Radium Drives are very unique. I’ve been wanting to design a rounded drive icon set for a while and this is finally it. To some it looks like an Apple airport. To others, a iMac G4 base. To me, five beautifully designed rounded drives. 2005-07-07T01:54:00-05:00 http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/ess_drives_summer_05/ http://enhancedlabs.com/index.php/site/ess_drives_summer_05/#When:03:07:00Z Part of the Essentials. Five custom drives.  After months of development and tweaking, The ESS Drives (summer ‘05 Release) is complete. The ESS Drives are part of “The Essentials” and includes five beautifully designed drives. 2005-06-09T03:07:00-05:00