Gallery: Announcement

Thanking your beta testers is important! They are the people that helped you get your application to a point where it’s ready to be unleashed to the world. How better to reward them then by sending a little treat via a simple, yet fantastic looking email.

This campaign for the Dropmark collaboration app by oak is split into five different sections, two of which are the obligatory header and footer areas, just as you would expect. The first main content area is short, sweet and very succinct, thanking testers and giving the opportunity to upgrade. Then we have a little section showing what’s new, including screen shots. Nice touch as the tester may not have seen these updates. Finally, there is a section which provides information about what Dropmark is, which is handy for those recipients that may have been forwarded the email… Or if you’re absent minded, like me.

We’re really pleased to introduce… This neat little notification email from WorkFu!

When it comes to letting your users know that you have made changes to your application, it can be easy to over do things a little. Here however, is a great example in getting the details out in a simple and efficient way. Even though it hasn’t been optimised for mobile devices, it still reads really well on my iPhone. The customised Twitter button, inviting current users to share with friends is a fine touch.

It’s great to see Mike Kus and team keeping their users so keenly up to date during the beta of their up-and-coming job site, especially as communications like this are so often just an after-thought amidst all the development and design busyness that leads up to a launch.

Really simple, but really effective!

Do you remember the day you discovered all those TED videos that were suddenly available to the common joe? It was like a whole new world opened up. This smart and visually stunning email by TBD captures the Ted brand so well with it’s modern art styling, dramatic colors, and that deceptively simple yet enticing graphic that is reminiscent of those static “moving” illusions.

A nice narrow layout ensures mobile friendliness and a clever use of layout space means that a lot of the important info gets above the proverbial fold. All around, an email that will grab attention when it arrives.

Hello, my name is Davida and I like Courier. I’ve always liked it, sometimes secretly, like when my colleagues would be bashing it’s name loudly from the desk next over. But I’ve always loved the way it gives a typewriter feel and when combined with the visual metaphor of paper, although commonly used, I really do think works well. 

Adding to this design by The Turtle Conservancy are pleasing textures and adorable photos. The designers make nice use of white space to separate out the articles which helps bring attention to the ‘Read More’ link on the shortened articles.  Generally, I would recommend against such a long email, but with such a specialized topic I’d be willing to bet that this audience is very engaged and would be happy to receive a lot of information on a topic dear to their hearts.

This eye-capturing email campaign, designed by Matt Hackett, packs a lot of content well into a small area but remains uncrowded and easy to read. A peek at David Bostock’s stunning wedding photography portfolio is accompanied by testimonials, contact information, links and more.

The distinct separation of foreground and background colors is emphasized so simply by the subtle shadows around the top and bottom corners, assisting the photographs to leap from the screen to the viewer’s attention.

We particularly like the detailed permission reminder, which leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind as to why they’re receiving the email. Overall, this is a thoughtfully-designed email and a credit to Matt Hackett’s familiarity with the medium.

Just in time for TYPO San Francisco (5-6 April), we’re featuring one of their beautiful email newsletters, by event organizer and cool customer, FontShop. As can be expected, its been designed by type nerds, for type nerds. A variety of typefaces have been used, mostly of the sans-serif variety, to create a modern, harmonious look. There’s a lot of visual interest to be had, thanks to the use of their molecular model motif, bright colors and good-quality images. Before anyone goes on to say it’s too image-heavy, it’s to be noted that all the important stuff - registration details, speaker bios - are all in text, so the message is not lost when images are off.

My only recommendation is that this announcement should feature a call-to-action and links that are not so buried in the text - my fear is that after a couple of seconds, a reader may not know how to respond. But all up, this is a great design that practices what TYPO preaches by placing typography in the fore.

Tickets are still available for TYPO SF, so if you don’t have one already, it’s your last chance to register!

Rawww created their own Christmas email to match the launch page of their upcoming ‘Infographic of the day’ website. Once images are loaded, this bold design that’s made to look like it’s set on Christmas-themed infographic wrapping paper really stands out.

I would have liked to see actual text used in the header above to prevent the message being lost when images are disabled. Also, the website link below can potentially trigger phishing warnings. Hopefully these didn’t dampen the Christmas spirit, as it’s a jolly design nonetheless.

This email for Blamey by nhocreative is stylish simplicity itself with a delicious mix of the bold contrasting with the understated. Oddly enough, I am enamored with the humble footer which simply lists out the social options and websites - it makes it feel much more like a gentle invitation than an in-your-face plea to connect.

However, and I feel more and more strongly about this these days since I practically live on my phone, I would highly suggest the use of mobile optimization to slightly scale down the width of the overall email for those on the go.

What a lovely email that the clearly multi-talented photographer Daniel Stroka designed to showcase his beautiful botanical photography. He captures the subdued tones of his photography in the email, keeping things simple and light.

One suggestion would be that the email would benefit from the use of some mobile optimization to slightly scale down the width of the images and content. But overall, we think this design would be soothing to view in any email client.

If there’s one publication that’s been creating lots of buzz lately, it’s Offscreen Magazine. Describing itself as being a collectable tome on ‘the people behind bits and & pixels’ and ‘the human side of interfaces’,  Issue #1 features the likes of Dan Cederholm, Hannah Donovan (of Last.fm fame) and Ryan Singer. But that’s not all - Offscreen also features a peek into creative workspaces, like SoundCloud‘s hacker-friendly habitat and yes, there’s four pages dedicated to our southern Sydney HQ. In case you’re curious.

But back to the email newsletter. Designer Kai Brach has created an appealing preview of Offscreen Mag’s maiden issue, which may seem image-heavy, but given how visual the magazine is, almost all can be forgiven. Below the thumbnails is a column of text that is ideal for reading on a mobile device and a clear call-to-action that leads to Offscreen’s identically-branded site. The newsletter, site and magazine itself feature such considered use of type, that you can almost hear design geeks squealing in delight, cycling caps being carried off by an inexplicable wind.

We love this newsletter, as we love the magazine. In fact, I love the smell of the magazine. It’s pulpy, rich, warm. Follow the newsletter’s promise and go buy one for yourself, then bliss out on design stories from both on- and offscreen.