Chuck Killorin’s Post

I have never liked the Verizon logo. There were too many elements and visually, the balance was off. The font was too bold. They made it work over the years, taking the check element and working it into the branding, and cleaning up the system in general. The color palette in red and black was always strong and the designers did a good job of elevating the logo's deficiencies with layout and design. Today, I logged in to the MyVerizon app and was greeted by a new folded ribbon style "V" with a yellow to red sunburst gradation effect. I investigated the live site and I don't so it used, but they may be rolling it out slowly. I am eager to see if this is indeed the rebrand we, as designers, have been waiting for! #yesterlearnings #verizon #branding #logodesign #logos #rebrand

“I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it’s inside the box. A great carpenter isn’t going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody’s going to see it.” I love this quote from Steve Jobs speaking with the engineers of the Apple II. They didn't understand why he was so focused on making sure the circuit boards looked good when the case was going to be sealed and no one would ever see them. But Jobs' intent was that of an artist and putting in the effort even though no one would see it or recognize it—you still did it. #yesterlearnings #cricut #UX #UI #stevejobs #inspirational

Digital designers are expected to do everything. Like it or not, that's the truth. Some folks can specialize in something and be very successful—but I would say those are the exceptions. In my experience, embracing the concept of being a digital polyglot creates someone that is curious and capable of handling situations and solving problems effectively. #yesterlearnings #digitaldesign #creative #webdesign #webdevelopment

All agencies do Post Mortems after a project or a campaign wraps to discuss what went wrong or right in an attempt to learn and do the next campaign or project better. These are sometimes painful because they tend to look at the negatives. We wanted to look at the post mortem differently. We got the team together, in-office, for a brainstorm session to revisit past successful projects and identify key moments in those projects—How could we have done more to increase the users' experience? What I found is that once we were no longer bound by schedule, budget, or resources and focusing only on bettering the users' experience, it opened the creative flood gates and resulted in great ideas that we could implement in future. #yesterlearnings #postmortem #UX #customerjourney #design

Another tip Alex the Great gave me was this task cube. It's cool, just because it's a fidgety thing you can play with, but it helps when I have lots of emails and requests on my time. Just turn it on, face the time indication up, and place it on the desk. After the designated time the cube will beep. When that happens, I stop doing the task I was doing and move on to the next one. Setting my new designated time, and so on. The goal is to focus only on that task for the time limit. #yesterlearnings #tip #productivity

One of the best project managers, Alexandra Toth, I ever worked with gave me the best email advice I ever received. Even though it flies against every OCD-like intention I have about handling things in the order they came in. Here's her advice: Sort your incoming email by "Conversation" with the most recent up top. Then tackle each email in descending order. Addressing any ToDos in the email then deleting or filing it away. Eventually I get to the emails that are just repeats of what I've already addressed and can be deleted with the knowledge it's been done. #yesterlearnings #email #tips #OCD #inbox #productivity

One of the things I've struggled with as a marketer is that what I do rarely has a direct impact on someone's life. But Digital Accessibility provides an opportunity to do just that. By creating accessible experiences in the digital products we create, non-typical users are able to engage and connect with the brands we do work for. Plus, it makes me feel good when we can help those customers (who are used to hitting barriers) have a frictionless experience while doing things typical users take for granted.#yesterlearnings #accessibility #UX #marketing

Do you really need a PDF? PDFs have their place—legal requirements, large reports, brochures and whitepapers. And while they can be made accessible PDFs, they are a bit of a pain since any update requires you to re-do all the accessible edits from scratch. But if you have access to the HTML code of the site, then you have a better option. An accessible HTML page can be read by Screenreaders, navigated by keyboard, AND it will scale and be readable on a mobile device. Best of all is if the user truly needs a hard copy, a proper print stylesheet will allow them to print out or export the page as a nicely formatted PDF. #yesterlearnings #PDF #accessibility #a11y #html #webdevelopment #tips

Yesterday my son came to me with a car problem. The power steering wasn't working anymore and after checking it out, we saw fluid belching out of the reservoir. I'm big on fixing my stuff and cars are no exception, so before we took it to the mechanic we did some research and headed to YouTube and found the exact issue—an o-ring gone bad. $12 later and some wrenching and the power steering was as good as new. This is true with cars, marketing, design, or programming. 9 times out of 10 Somebody, somewhere, has had your exact problem and documented it. #yesterlearnings #tips #marketing #maintenance