Any other cellphone graphics out there worth mentioning? Is there really hope for the future?

[Original article posted below]

Here’s some advice for designers: Next time you make a cell-phone call, look at the display and imagine your finest design on a 2.5-inch screen. Pocket- and palm-friendly mobile technology is becoming more ubiquitous, if possible, than the PC, and visual entertainment is shrinking to fit it. With 2 billion such devices expected to be in circulation by year’s end, the mobile revolution could prove as transformative for design as the internet was 10 years ago.

Technology has only recently allowed for sophisticated designs on mobile platforms. Display screens have grown (relatively) large, even on cheap phones, easily containing games and photos where two lines of LCD text once represented the state of the art. Issues of size aside, smart phones—devices that connect to the internet—are quickly replacing voice-only phones; processing speeds are gaining, and memory is increasing. These circumstances are fostering major innovations in graphics.

“It’s an interesting time for mobile design,” says Matias Duarte, chief designer at Helio, a U.S. cellular carrier operated by South Korean phone giant SK Telecom. “The field is in transition from a technology to a design medium, much like the web was in the mid-’90s.” It’s no small shift. Until now, the aesthetic emphasis was on product design—in other words, sexy handsets. This meant little attention or understanding for Duarte and his ilk. Until recently, he had to take screenshots of his designs to the programmers. “I’d just hope they understood what I was going for,” he remembers. New attitudes and technology have engendered a more promising creative environment. “Everyone’s realizing users want these emotionally rich experiences,” he explains, “which means giving designers the tools to create that. The wave is starting to build.”

New software from SK Telecom, Nokia, Adobe, and Qualcomm (which is also releasing a font—see Hot Type below) is aimed squarely at creating WYSIWYG functionality for design-savvy non-programmers. Nokia’s Carbide UI, for instance, was specifically created for graphic designers building user interfaces for Nokia’s Series 60 platform. Carbide allows designers to import files from any major graphics-editing program. “You used to have to know how to write code to create interfaces for our phones,” says Matti Antila, a product manager for Carbide UI. “The idea was to bring the software to the visual talent, the people who are adept at Illustrator but don’t necessarily know how to program.”

Nokia says there will be 100 million Series 60 phones worldwide by year’s end. Few, sadly, will have a U.S. area code. Because of America’s outdated networks, we’re being left behind on some of the most exciting technological advances in the mobile field. Adobe estimates that a similar number of phones run Flash Lite, the mobile version of its popular web utility that makes possible the same workflow used in web design—create on Illustrator, import to Flash—in mobile applications. But again, not in America. “Almost no U.S. phones are running Flash Lite,” says Anup Murkraa, Adobe’s director of technical marketing. But Murkraa thinks that’s about to change: “In the more mature mobile markets, like Korea and Japan, designers are really thinking of the device as a showcase for design.” If past is prologue, the U.S. is on the verge of yet another technological sea change.

Surprisingly, media companies delivering content aren’t necessarily tapped into that change. MTV Networks, for example, doesn’t employ a single graphic designer to package its mobile offerings. This seems odd for a company as design-oriented as MTV, but it’s a compromise presumably driven by the fact that the company needs to reach the largest number of phones possible. On the other hand, a company like Helio (known in the industry as a “mobile virtual network operator” because it leases network capacity from big carriers like Sprint) has more incentive to develop sophisticated visuals, in part because its customer base is highly targeted. “The lowest common denominator for mobile service in the U.S. is pretty crappy,” says Duarte. “We’re able to ignore it because we’re specifically going after technosexuals, young guys who spend a lot of money on the latest gadgets.” The result shows in Helio’s interfaces. Leveraging the display screen’s 150 dpi resolution, Helio’s designs boast complex palettes and nuanced text. “We can render really subtle text effects, almost as if we were designing for print,” elaborates Duarte.

Nokia envisions even more specific uses for Carbide UI, such as corporate identity campaigns. “Imagine pitching your client and showing them how you can customize the interface on all their employees’ phones,” says Antilla. If this all seems far off, remember how little time it took for the MP3 phone to go from suck (2005’s Rokr) to slick (LG’s recently released Chocolate). Even as people without PCs are buying cells, those phones are becoming small computers destined to feature sleek, complex designs. Other companies besides Helio might benefit by making similar explorations. “I’m not sure the major players on the web get mobile design’s potential,” says Duarte. They will. Great design leads to better sales, whatever the platform. Get your portfolio ready.