Just because I think it's the first time it's come up in an article here, Monocle magazine is an amazing publication. Profitable, growing, and a loyal audience paying through the nose for a subscription (I am one ;-)) - unlike many magazines nowadays. Their approach to magazine publishing is pretty novel - a lot of interesting advertising/editorial crossover, their own radio station, their own real world stores.. (Fanboy mode over.)
I might think the same but I'm probably unusual among geeks by being into high end fashion, haute couture and urban planning, and digging the Japan-meets-Scandinavia culture montage Monocle almost exclusively focuses on. There's certainly an air of well meaning but unspoken pretention about it.
All that aside, though, if you skip the fashion and 'the third world's problems can all be fixed using the Scandinavian approach' stuff, there's a lot of great business reading in there.
People seem to like to write long articles about why design matters, but fail to show it. It's nice to read an article like this where the significance of the design work can be judged by something out in the wild. I'm neither here nor there on the specifics of Metro, but I think the success of a system of design (something not in the hands of any one designer) is something to get excited about.
This is an article about Microsoft's "Metro" design language, so named until a couple of weeks ago, when a large Microsoft retail partner (Metro AG) asked Microsoft to rename it.
It has since been renamed "Windows 8-style UI".
I hoped this post meant it had been renamed "M". "M-style" flows off the tongue far easier than "Windows-8-style-UI"..
While this has been in the news everywhere, Microsoft itself hasn't mentioned anything about this. In fact, they still use 'Metro' on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/apps and their various Windows 8-related blogs.
Malkovich saw what I was working on and showed it to
Malkovich Malkovich (Art Director who worked with
Malkovich Malkovich), and he said something like "that's
Malkovich!"
90% of the redactions are of the word 'Metro' (i think it's sort of a joke given that Microsoft decided to axe the term and has informed all related parties to do the same without providing a clear alternative). other than that, the remainder appears to be names of colleagues and specific individuals at the company (usually followed by their titles, so it’s kind of obvious)..
here’s one part I can help with; beginning of the last paragraph:
In spring of 2012 [STEVE] [BALLMER] shouted out "[METRO], [METRO], [METRO]!" at a conference, and that is the moment that Microsoft's "new look" have been said to have gone mainstream.
"In spring of 2012 XXXXX XXXXXXX shouted out "XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX!" at a conference,"
Why would he blank that part out if it was said publicly at a conference?
(also have to say, this is one of the more annoying interfaces on a website I've seen. Single clicking your mouse anywhere outside the main paragraph navigates you back to the index?!"
Today I received an email with promo codes for several certifications:
71-481: Essentials of Developing Windows XXXXX style Apps using HTML5 and JavaScript
71-482: Advanced XXXXX style App Development using HTML5 and JavaScript
71-484: Essentials of Developing Windows XXXXX style Apps using C#
71-485: Advanced XXXXX style App Development using C#
A rare glimpse into what successful design means at a company where designers don't have decision making power: guerrilla warfare. The incredible thing is that the team behind "M" or "Metro"(or whatever Microsoft plans on calling it tomorrow) was able to perfect this recipe of 2 parts politics, 1 part propaganda, and just a tiny dash of fundamental design principles that have been recognized for centuries, in order to win support for their project.
All over this article - all too often people think 'minimal design' is 'using Helvetica and getting rid of the gradients and drop shadows'.
There's a whole lot more to it than that, and it all goes back to studying Müller-Brockmann and embracing minimalism as a school of thought rather than an aesthetic.
