Please vote for my 55DSL contest submissions

Just when you were wondering if I could jock 55DSL any harder, I spent a few hours this weekend on some submissions for the 55DSL logo remix contest they're doing in conjunction with Cut&Paste. If you have a minute, please take a look at my submissions and vote for them (2 of them are above, there are 5 or 6 more). I would be so stoked to win that I'm not 100% sure I would survive the excitement!

The rules are pretty simple: all entries must use 55DSL's colors, some element that refers to the shield in their existing logo, and should preserve the existing aspect ratio. As you can probably guess, my biggest influences as a graphic designer are Swiss modernism and West Coast graffiti. Put the two together and you have what you see above, for better or for worse.

View/vote for my submissions here.

Ecommr launches

Tom Sullivan, the brains behind the excellent retail industry blog No Turn On Red, dropped me a line to let me know about the launch of a new project he's heading up called ecommr. Rather than stumble my way through a description, I'll just pass on his words:

Working in the e-commerce field, I often find myself looking at other retailers to gather ideas on how to best present various elements of e-commerce sites. From design to information architecture, I find it fascinating to see how different retailers tackle the same problems in different ways. I’m often looking at different retailers and constantly looking for changes, no matter how small, and trends in e-commerce design.

I always wanted to see a site that broke down e-commerce stores into their different elements. I wanted a resource that would allow me to see the various ways retailers display their products or style their “Add to Cart” buttons. There are sites that break down general web elements (see: Elements of Design) and sites that highlight e-commerce design (see: Carted Up), but still no resource that broke down the individual elements.

Of course, this is where I looked to do something about it.

Today, I am proud to announce the launch of ecommr. ecommr is a collection of screen captures of e-commerce design and interface elements. From product listing pages to e-mail newsletters, ecommr is a resource to view all of the individual pieces that make up the e-commerce puzzle. Right now, there are 87 elements from more than 20 retailers.

Check it out at http://www.ecommr.com/!