Category: Creativity

A brief history of bad logo redesigns — and what designers can learn from them


Did you know we have an online conference about product design coming up? SPRINT will cover how designers and product owners can stay ahead of the curve in these unprecedented times. Logo redesigns are a lot like a tightrope act—on a windy day, in a pouring rain, no nifty balancing pole or safety net below. The risks are high, and the margin for error is thin. What’s at stake? Confusion. Outrage. Social media “shame-on-you”s. We form deep, emotional ties with logos. The shock of change has the power to trigger a disproportionate reaction regardless of a redesign’s quality. Social media logo…

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Confetti, koalas, and candles of love: Backstage at Eurovision’s AI song contest


This year, the world’s most prestigious music award show — The Eurovision Song Contest — was set to be more spectacular than ever, as an AI competition was running alongside the traditional extravaganza. Then the coronavirus arrived. Eurovision was sadly canceled — but the organizers of the AI song contest bravely chose to go ahead. And TNW bagged an exclusive ticket to the show. “We have everything here,” promised host Lieven Scheire. “There is glitter, there is a smoke machine, there will be love, peace, and modulations, and I have prepared some overly scripted jokes that probably will not work in this context.…

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Moog’s Subharmonicon is the perfect instrument for people who think math is beautiful


Moog today introduced its new Subharmonicon, a semi-modular analog synthesizer featuring six-tone subharmonic chords and organic polyrhythms. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s a musical instrument that lets you create incredible soundscapes using nothing but math and electricity. Basically, the Subharmonicon is like a kaleidoscope for your ears. On its own, it’s a synthesizer featuring the classic Moog sounds. We’re talking the thrumming, throbbing bass and sweeping warbles that defined decades of synth sounds, but with enough modern twists to merit the new unit. What’s special about the Subharmonicon is that it was inspired by two pieces of vintage…

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Streaming service Deezer built an AI to catch the explicit lyrics human censors miss


Deezer has found a new way to expel the scourge of profanity turning innocent children into thugs, drug addicts, murderers — and worse. The streaming service has developed an AI technique that automatically detects explicit lyrics — just by analyzing the audio. Of course, a human could do the job, but that can be a lot of work, as podcaster Adam Buxton discovered when he valiantly tried to censor serial offenders NWA. Another problem is that record companies aren’t always as diligent as Buxton. Deezer says they can’t always be relied on to add an “explicit content” tag to the foul-mouthed songs that they submit…

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This AI wrote such emo lyrics that humans thought it was My Chemical Romance


If you think the songs in the charts sound like they were made by machines, you’re probably wrong — an AI’s lyrics would be better. That’s according to research by ticket site TickPick, which recently tested whether people prefer artificial or human songwriters. The company scraped thousands of lyrics from genius.com and grouped them into rock, rap, country, and pop songs. The words were then fed to a text-generating machine called GPT-2, which used machine learning to create new sets of lyrics. The system composed 100 songs in each genre, which the TickPick team turned into four original six-track albums. They then ran the lyrics through Grammarly’s plagiarism checker…

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Studio Ghibli releases free video background wallpapers to hide your shitty home decor


Ashamed of your terrible home decor? Fear not: The acclaimed Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli has just released a series of wallpapers to hide your tie-dye tapestries, bloodstains, and Audrey Hepburn posters. And you wanna know the best part? They are free. That’s right — F R E E, as long as you don’t use them for commercial purposes or advertising. Among the eight background options are stills from Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Arrietty, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Laputa’s Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa Valley of the Wind, Ponyo, and Princess Mononoke. Whichever you choose is your call. Get…

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A cinematographer’s guide to looking good during a video call


Welcome to our brave new working world, where you’re spending a lot of time remotely sitting in front of a camera, most likely your computer or cellphone camera, in a video conferencing app. As someone who has filmed a lot of interviews, I wanted to share some tips and tricks that I use when setting up situations so people look and sound great. Because no one signed up for this, but at least we can try to make the best of it. So let’s start at the top with… Oh, if you decide you’d rather be a faceless icon and not…

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Why UX designers and users should be well aware of cognitive biases


The human brain is designed to make quick and effective decisions rather than stick to facts at all times. Instead of acting rationally, we prefer to act fast. This may lead to better outcomes indeed, but it might also lead you astray. Cognitive biases can be both a blessing and a curse. With this article, you’re going to learn what exactly is a cognitive bias why UX designers should be well aware of different cognitive biases how both designers and users are prone to cognitive biases what are the most common cognitive biases in design Ready to find out how our brains…

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Researcher builds AI rapper to spit sick rhymes — with mixed results


A new contender has emerged for the title of best rapper alive: An AI dubbed the ‘Home-made Rap Machine. Li Yang Ku, a researcher at robotics firm Vicarious AI, trained the neural network to rap by feeding it classic lines by MCs including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg. He then entered some of his own rhymes as an input and asked it to complete the rap. Li described the results as “entertaining but with limited success,” It did show a reasonable grasp of slang, responding to the input “No rap is free, this thing cost me a fee”…

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AI-penned manga Paidon to be published this week


A new manga designed by AI and drawn by a robotic hand will be published in this week’s edition of Japan‘s Morning magazine. The AI developed the characters and plot by studying the works of Osamu Tezuka, known as “the father of manga” and the “Walt Disney of Japan” for creating classics such as Astro Boy and Black Jack before his death in 1989. Humans helpers completed the work by adding details such as clothing and dialogue, the Japan Times reports. The results will be revealed in a story called “Paidon,” which revolves around a homeless philosopher who teams up with a…

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