I was going over some of my notes from SXSW 2005 and I just remembered that a lot of presenters (off the top of my head I specifically remember Zeldman and Cloninger) talking about generative design. They were wowing audiences with some live demonstrations of little piece of beta software called n-Gen.
>The n-Gen Design Machine is a rapid prototyping graphic design engine that automatically generates savable graphic files from a combination of the user’s own text content and the n-Gen Design Modules - External style files that supply the Recipes (design algorithms, formulae, rule sets) and Ingredients (layouts, imagery, type, color palettes, etc.).
>n-Generate Metadata
Anyone know if this is going to turn into something new? I believe this is being developed by the people over at Movedesign and the n-Gen web site seems to lack anything that might resemble a product roadmap (this stuff has actually been around for a few years now). I wonder if they’re using it to jump-start their design ideas for clients? Pretty easy to offer 5 to 6 comps to a client when you only have to push button per design.
If you want to get a copy of the demo, the download page for the Windows and OS X software is sort of hidden away.
n-gen has been in beta for years and years. I think I still have a version from, oh, 2000 or 2001 or so. There used to be extra modules you could download to supplement it.
would you mind emailing me a copy of the file?
i need a copy of it too, please, i lost mine!