Tosin Abasi, of Animals As Leaders, has recently formed a new group, TRAM. Consisting of Javier Reyes, Suicidal Tendencies drummer Eric Moore and former Mars Volta wind instrumentalist, Adrian Terrazas. ‘TRAM’ stands for Terrazas, Reyes, Abasi, Moore.

The style is experimental Jazz, or ‘Jazz fusion’ as it’s fairly widely know as. Anybody hoping for the heavy hooks of Animals As Leaders will be disappointed, but fans of Jazz should check it out. ‘Seven Ways Till Sunday’ is a stand out track.

They have a 6 track E.P titled ‘Lingua Franca’ available to download, at a very reasonable price of £4.99.

TRAM Facebook page

Chino Moreno likes to keep busy. Aside from providing vocals, and Guitar occasionally, for Deftones, he has been involved in various side projects. Team Sleep and Crosses (†††) being the most high profile. Moreno has recently announced that a new side project, ‘Palms’, is currently in the pipeline. Composed of himself on vocals, and ISIS (who split in 2010) members Aaron Harris, Clifford Meyer, and Jeff Caxide.

Anybody who knows both bands will no doubt be trying to imagine the two combined. Chino commented: “Being a huge ISIS fan I’ve always dug the moods these dudes convey with their sound. I am excited to combine my sense of creativity with theirs, and to have fun doing so.”

This sounds awesome, roll on late 2012.

Whichever fucking ridiculous sub genre you try and place in Animals As Leaders, they certainly know how to play their instruments.

I booked tickets to see Meshuggah at the HMV Forum on the 20th of April 2012 as I had never seen live before, and I was intrigued to hear how their relentless brand of ‘Extreme’ metal would sound live. Then AAL were confirmed support, which made my day, and having had the ticket on my desk for the best part of 4 months, I was rather excited.

After a few warm up pints in the Bull & Gate, myself and Louie strolled down the street to the HMV Forum, and grabbed another beer just in time for AAL. Most of the songs were predictably from their latest release ‘Weightless’. The more familiar songs from their self-titled debut consisted of ‘Tempting Time’ which I recorded on my trusty iPhone (see below). Crowd pleaser ‘CAFO’ saw the crowd warmed up and moving, but also the end of the bands set.

I bumped into AAL guitarist Javier Reyes outside whilst having a between bands Marlboro light, nice chap.

As for Meshuggah, they did not disappoint, although what can I say, I was drunk. No track listings here.

Of late I have been increasingly aware of the phrase ‘rockstar designer’. I’m not very keen on these types of phrases as it can lead to unwanted criticisms form people outside the creative industry. Probably the most high profile usage of this term that I have come across is from the facebook team-

“…is the go-to source when looking for rock star designers”.

As attractive as it is, I’m not sure if this a particularly accurate description of my profession. Indeed a lot of my friends think my job is cool, as do I. It is cool, I come to work each day and create something new, exciting and aesthetically pleasing. I do not go on a world tour, trash hotel rooms (regularly anyway) and have millions of pounds in the bank. Of course that is taking the meaning of the term literally. Perhaps it is a reference to the attitude of rockstars. Do we designers have the same blasé, in your face attitude as the worlds greatest rock stars?

I’d like to think so, but probably not.

Heavily tattooed designer Joshua Davis has just finished building a half-pipe in his back garden, which is very rock and roll. I personally enjoy a great deal of live heavy metal, thrash, grind-core whatever you want to call it. I have a tattoo. Although when faced with daily design decisions such as cross-browser compatibility, I could hardly come to the conclusion of “screw the 33.4% of people that still use Internet explorer, it works in Firefox”, whilst defenestrating my iMac from the third floor onto the street below.

Whoever coined the phrase should perhaps have thought a little bit harder about the image conjured up by the word ‘rockstar’. Would a potential client be happy about employing a wild rockstar type to ensure their digital assets are carefully designed and nurtured? Of course not. I think ‘considerate, professional designer’ is a better description, quite boring though… new ideas on a postcard please.

But regardless of your feelings towards the grey boxes of joy, if you work in web design in a professional environment, they will have been a common part of your existence for the past 15 years.

Process driven

They are a crucial part of any design process, giving the creator a logical thought process, allowing them to visually, and mentally, navigate through the proposed design. UI (User Interface) issues can be ironed out at this stage through the use of wireframes. By having this process in place, a design team can ensure they have the best solution to the brief. I am process driven for the most part, and always endeavor to follow a work flow similar to this handy diagram below.

Scalability

Of course, wireframes may not be required for small scale projects. Depending on the size of the solution, it is sometimes not necessary to wireframe the design at all, and the designer can go directly to producing visual mockups which accurately describe the final result. This can approach can generally only be taken if the clients expectations are successfully managed. As I have mentioned in a previous post, there are clear arguments, both for and against, presenting the client with full mock ups or wireframes.

Functional Vs Visual

There are two types of commonly used definitions of wireframes, functional and visual. Generally, functional wireframes are less common in todays design environment, and were used for primarily for large scale solutions, with hundreds of hyperlinked pages. Historically, this task would have usually been completed by the IA (Information Architect). Functional wireframes can be difficult to read, complex and overly annotated. They are ugly, and don’t inform the visual design. Getting a solution signed off on the basis of a functional wireframe can be risky, as it may not accurately reflect the visual mock, elements may move and other decisions may be changed during the design process.

A more accurate description of the final product is a visual wireframe. The designer can show actual content, fonts at correct sizes and use image placeholders. A visual wireframe is a mix of functional and mock up. It is something that combines the IA and design, into a document that everybody can read and feel comfortable with, including the client. Web design has evolved. It is now very much a modular process, as is coding. This argument is explained very well in this article by Isaac Pinnock over at Made by many.

Whose line is it anyway?

As I mentioned earlier, the job of creating wireframes 10 years ago almost certainly fell to the IA, which would then be passed to the designer to design. Today the the line between the Designer, IA and Developer is a blurry one. With Ajax and todays web design principles and technologies, the designer must ensure that their solution not only looks awesome, but works beautifully. Again, historically, this task fell to the developer, but today more commonly the UX (User Experience) is handled by the designer.

The best, and most successful solutions, are those which seamlessly combine the look (UI), experience (UX) and the Content, so the designers role in delivering these elements to the client is crucial. Wireframes will continue to remain a crucial part of this process, in whichever format best suits the solution.

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So what is responsive web design?

Responsive web design is, put simply, a website which can be viewed at any resolution. The CSS is developed in such a way that the page elements can adapt to different devices. CSS3 introduced Media Queries, which allow you to serve different CSS Style Sheets depending on device resolution, without the use of of Javascript. Using this method this makes your developed site far more flexible when designing for multiple devices. CSS Media Queries, Fluid grids, & image sizing adapt the content of the website to any device.

Throwing your budget a lifeline

With the ever growing number of devices on the market today, having a ‘one size fits all’ website makes perfect sense. Desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones, all have wide varieties of resolutions. This presents a huge challenge when designing & developing websites to cater for everyone.

Most projects simply do not have a sufficient budget to develop multiple versions of a website. This is where planning and building a responsive solution is really beneficial. You do not have to create a mobile version of your website for different devices, just develop one site than can adapt itself to different resolutions.

Responsive, or Mobile?

Some projects may not require a responsive approach, and clearly need a separate mobile website to be developed. Facebook, for example, has a mobile web application, which is vastly different to its bigger brother. The content is the same, but the design, layout & user experience have been designed specifically for mobile devices.

It is in the hands of the designer to decide the correct solution, responsive web design is never going to be suitable for all projects. Having said that, best practice in design would have had most designers considering these potential problems already. Liquid layouts (thankfully we don’t see too many these days) had been using percentages to calculate the width of columns to cater for different browser resolutions since the birth of CSS. Responsive web design is the next step for universal accessibility.

Tell me more…

I have only lightly brushed on the principles of responsive web design, if you would like to know more about it, take a look at this article by Ethan Marcotte, over at A List Apart.

Ethan has published a book on the subject, for which he also coined the phrase, appropriately titled ‘Responsive Web Design’, which you can order from A Book Apart.

You saw this post on demomedia.co.uk first.

We went to the lovely island of Mallorca in 2011, to celebrate my good friend Guy’s 30th birthday. This is the video he edited from footage we shot whilst away.

Whilst thinking about this list, I had first decided to compile a list of the albums which I had listened to the most frequently during 2011. I took a look at my iTunes playlist and realised that it would have basically been, more or less, a list of my favourite bands. So, my top 6 albums released in 2011 it became, in no particular order. Enjoy!

Battles – ‘Gloss Drop’

I have been a Battles fan for a good while now, ‘Gloss Drop’ being their second full length effort. The album was released on June 6, 2011 and much was said at the time about the departure of Tyondai Braxton. Braxton left the band to pursue his solo career, with many fans thinking Battles sound would suffer as result.

My opinion is that the band have evolved, and as an album, and live, they sound as enthralling, experimental and exciting as ever. I saw Battles on their European Gloss Drop Tour in June 2011, and it was awesome.

Mogwai – ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’

‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’ is Mogwai’s follow up to 2008′s ‘The Hawk Is Howling’, released on the 14 February 2011. For me it’s much more of a complete record than their previous effort, I love nearly every track on it.

Completely subjective of course, but with tracks like ‘White Noise’, ‘San Pedro’ and ‘How To Be A Werewolf’, this album is a winner. ‘White Noise’ make the hairs on my arms stand on end, and I have literally cried whilst listening to it.

Glassjaw – ‘Coloring Book’

Hopefully Glassjaw need little introduction. The post-hardcore band have been legends on the scene for over a decade. ‘Coloring Book’ was given away for free during their 2011 tour, and is a sneak peak of their next album.

The sound is a new direction for the band, but it works. ‘Gold’ & ‘Stations Of The New Cross’ are standout tracks.

Crosses – ‘†††’

Crosses (†††) are an electronic rock side project from Deftones singer Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez. They have made their debut self-titled EP available for free from August 2, 2011.

I love it, ‘†his Is A †rick’ and ‘Op†ion’ getting the most plays from me. You can download a copy from www.crossesmusic.com.

Russian Circles – ‘Empros’

Russian Circles are a three piece instrumental rock band from Chicago. ‘Empros’ is their fourth studio album, released on October 25, 2011, and is the follow up to 2009′s ‘Geneva’.

I first caught them live on their first UK tour supporting Tool in 2007, and have been a big fan ever since. ‘Empros’ has been eagerly awaited, and does not disappoint. The opening minute and half of ‘Mládek’ sends shivers down my spine, ‘Schipol’ slow burning, but with its lunging, heavy rhythms, has a similar effect. Awesome stuff.

Will Haven – ‘Voir Dire’

I had covered the ‘Return of Will Haven’ in a previous blog post back in July. Will Haven released ‘Voir Dire’, their fifth full length release, on the 11 October 2011.

I had the pleasure of having my ear drums smashed in by Grady & Co. on November 11 2011, at the o2 Academy Islington. They played most (I think) of ‘Voir Dire’, then belted out some old favourites, it was a great night, and good to have them back in the UK.

Today I learned a valuable regarding salt beef. I had a Reuben. A Reuben is a grain mustard sourdough bun filled with 200g of salt beef topped with sliced pickle, russian dressing and sauerkraut.

The culinary delight was purchased from Brass Rail, which is located inside Selfridges, courtesy of my boss. Thanks Cem!

Suzuki Method are a band from Salford, Manchester. They are by no means a new band, having played the Manchester circuit for a number of years. Their debut EP is out now on Factory Foundation Recordings. Although difficult to pigeon hole into a specific style, Suzuki Method weave out the kind of infectious electro indie that you might find yourself humming, days after listening to them.

Camden Barfly

I nipped down the the Camden Barfly last Saturday night to catch them live. The sound was good, the band were good, the beer was warm. Good times.

To find out more check out this review on BBC Manchester, or take a look at the band’s MySpace page.

Take a look at their video for ‘What we do’s not secret’