Mike Guss designer of Metro on 'M' | Hacker News Reader

Mike Guss designer of Metro on 'M'

mikeguss.com

50 pointsedandersen30 comments

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 tried to get into Monocle, and while I acknowledge that it's very well designed, the yuppiness was overwhelming.

Imagine Vice turned into an ad for J. Crew.

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.

I've been a fan of Tyler Brûlé's work since the early days of Wallpaper*. Eagerly awaiting his realization of great luggage.

Monocle's use of different paper stock for different sections is very refreshing and fun.

I wish the Monocle store in the Village had a broader range of product though.

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.

http://mikeguss.com/Windows

Top right of the screen is the cover of the New Order album Power, Corruption & Lies.

I take the joke about the redaction of all mentions of Metro, but why the names as well?

I guess I don't get the point of the faux-censorship here. Anyone care to help a clueless newbie out?

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.

They should rename it "Malkovich":

   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!"

The censorship is a fun idea, but it made the article difficult to read, along with random images splattered everywhere.

Yeah, my brain found it unreadable.

I found it much easier to read after `$('font').css('background','transparent')`, for what it's worth.

Apparently, a lot of additional knowledge about what is behind the redacted text is needed to make the article valuable.

Could somebody re-post the article here with all the blackened out text replaced by a best guess? Would make it much more informative.

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?!"

XXXXX = Metro :-)

I hope the blanking makes more sense to you now (I WTFed at first too.)

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.

now it is: 'modern'

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.

This might be NSFW due to the images. It is for me.

quit

Extremely iPhone-hostile site, sadly. Can only read like two paragraphs before it cuts me off. Too bad, it started good.

Edit: The reader button did the trick.

Also, two finger scroll.

It didn't even show up on my Windows Phone device - just a single black 'M'.

Microsoft is all about reducing itself to the essentials these days.

I think you can blame Cargo.

Scroll vertically by swiping sideways.

A bit sad that I got downvoted for this without elaboration. Not sure what in my comment was offensive?

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