Broken
Czechoslovakian artist Milan Knížák's Broken Music combines a beautiful boxed set multiple (including a melted record, one cassette and various texts) with haunting collages of found sound. No surprise to hear his work is included in MOMA, NY's collection.
Audio samples of Knížák's can be heard at Diagonal Thoughts.
Constraint
Paul Constant reviews Twitter:
When you constrain a form, you can often broaden what people can do with it.
From Constant's ongoing series of < 140 characters aphorisms.
Chinese Camouflage
Beijing based artist Liu Bolin's camouflage works feature Chinese citizens painstakingly painted to blend into their surroundings, resulting in momentary installations captured in photographic form.
Haunting.
Daily Drop Cap
The Daily Drop Cap is an ongoing illustrative project by Brooklyn based typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische. Hische states:
Each day (or at least each work day), a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap will be posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere.
Hische posts examples of each drop cap in use and licenses them for free use under a Creative Commons license.
The Anxiety of Creating
A fantastic quote courtesy of this is a working library: Rollo May, The Courage to Create, pp93:
Creative people, as I see them, are distinguished by the fact that they can live with anxiety, even though a high price may be paid in terms of insecurity, sensitivity, and defenselessness for the gift of the 'divine madness', to borrow the term used by the classical Greeks.
They do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being. They knock on silence for an answering music; they pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean.
Poetic and accurate.
Revised
Craig Arnold's re:vision recycled camera lens bracelets couple sustainable design with a simplicity of approach that's enviable. Each piece is hand-crafted and is available from Oye Modern who offer an extensive collection of unique, short-run jewellery by emerging and independent designers from all over the world.
The Bay Line
Repurposing architecture.
In a move reminiscent of William Gibson's Virtual Light and the repurposed preservation strategy behind rethinking New York's High Line, San Francisco Bay Area architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello have called for stabilizing the disused – and soon to be entirely dismantled – portion of the Bay Bridge. Reinventing it as a pedestrianized urban park and outdoor sports attraction.
$1
Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's Lieb House, for sale: $1.
Google AJAX Libraries API
A content distribution and loading architecture for the most popular, open source JavaScript libraries maintained at Google Code:
By using the Google AJAX API Loader's google.load() method, your application has high speed, globaly available access to a growing list of the most popular, open source JavaScript libraries.
The Yelp Tee
Pizzeria Delfina's response to negative reviews on Yelp is a stroke of genius. Celebrating its one star Yelp reviews, the business has emblazoned them on T-shirts. The result is a clear conversation starter:
Instead of bitching about Yelp, they've made Yelp their bitch and taken quotes from one-star reviews posted on Yelp about the pizzeria and made them into T-shirts for their staff to wear.
The market is a conversation. (Deja vu?)
Justified?
Martin McClellan on justified type in Amazon's iPhone Kindle application:
The ability to selectively hyphenate in CSS would be a start.
1/8,000,000
Originally from a small town near Naples, Italy, Mr. Manniello, 73, has cut hair inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal for the past 36 years.
The Typographic Desk Reference
Horror Vacui
Horror Vacui - a two-player, eight-bit game coming soon from Shaun Inman, developer of Mint.
Drawing Tops
Thomas Forsyth's Drawing Tops are an elegant idea. A series of spinning tops that use pens as spindles, their resulting drawings are beautiful works of chance.
Evening Tweed
![Evening Tweed [Detail]](assets/evening_tweed.png)
A graphic design collective formed by four graduates of the University of Brighton, Evening Tweed is home to some very interesting work for a variety of clients. The collective's four members have an impressive portfolio which includes: The New York Times, WIRED and JPG Magazine.
Owen Gildersleeve's Spinning Top Prints, a collaboration with designer Thomas Forsyth, are personal favourite.
The Fear
Heavy rotation: The Fear.
KERN
![KERN [Detail]](assets/kern.png)
An iPhone App strictly for typographers: "Place the missing letter of each falling word in its correct position. Your score is calculated from the type size, leading amount, and the accuracy of letter placement."
Tropicana
A spectacular volte-face for Tropicana:
Redesigned packaging that was introduced in early January is being discontinued, executives plan to announce on Monday, and the previous version will be brought back in the next month.
The market is a conversation and PepsiCo appear to be listening.
Grid Index
Carsten Nicolai's works are characterised by absolute precision and careful attention to detail. Grid Index, published on Die Gestalten Verlag in April 2009, features a comprehensive visual lexicon of patterns and grid systems, presented in both analogue and digital form.
DGV state:
From the simplest grids made up entirely of squares to the most complex irregular ones with infinitely unpredictable patterns of growth, the book itself is a work of art.
If you appreciated Autopilot or Oacis you'll appreciate this. [Via Mr Farrington.]
Design Theory and Research
The Rietveld Academie's Foundation Year Design Programme looks like an interesting model.
Article Skimmer
The best design is often the least over-complicated and The New York Times recent Article Skimmer prototype is a perfect example of this.
A minimal and elegant piece of information design coupled with a restrained, but intelligent, use of jQuery for interactivity, results in an unobtrusive and pleasurable reading experience.
Andre Behrens states:
It is easier and more relaxing to scan a surface of information than flip through a stack, so information is laid out in a rigid two-dimensional grid. The sections do not flip into place; instead, they slide up and down. If you want to imagine the whole of the content as a giant uncut scroll of paper, don’t let us stop you.
This intuitive piece of information design (coupled with some clearly thought out keyboard shortcuts) allows the reader to take in a large quantity of information with ease. The emphasis is on scanning an information surface at macro-level, before focusing in on specific stories to experience them at micro-level. The result is "a little taste of Sunday relaxation" delivered any day of the week.
Less is, indeed, more.
1234567890 Day
At precisely 23:31:30 UTC tonight, Unix time hits a unique milestone: 1234567890.
One Free Interaction
Excellent post at Cooper Journal which is well worth reading:
'One free interaction' is a prospective design pattern that gives software and hardware a more humane feel. It exists outside of task flows and the concept of users as task-doers. Instead it sits in the 'in between' spaces, suiting users as fidgeters, communicators, and people who play with things.
Although the focus of the piece is on software and hardware design it's equally applicable to non-computing design environments.
Speed, Satisfaction
Habemus Dialogum
Cultured Code, creators of the excellent Things (a fantastically designed task manager for OS X), state simply:
This article is about a single dialog.
Nothing could be further (and yet closer) to the truth. A single dialog and so much more. This is the level of attention to detail that sets apart the well-designed from the fantastically-obsessively-well-designed.
Attention to detail. Exhaustive testing. UI heaven.
Masters in Criminal Justice
The darker side of social media.
Inspiring Websites
Filed under lines and minimalism.
xefer
A welcome by-product of the assessment process, Twitter Statistics "produces charts showing a Twitter user’s tweet statistics. Data is gathered and generated using Yahoo Pipes and the Google Chart API. [Via Mr Hughes.]
HAL 9000
Heuristic Algorithmic. [Via Mr Persson (Via Mr Gruber (Via Mr Geraghty))]
1234567890
A date for your diary: 1234567890 [Via Mr McEwen.]
BLINDTEXTGENERATOR
A lorem ipsum substitute, BLINDTEXTGENERATOR offers a variety of alternative dummy texts (Kafka, Cicero...) for web designers. With paragraph, word and character count options and the ability to display <p> tags, for easy copy and paste, not to mention CSS typographic previews of the usual font-family suspects it's a tool guaranteed to make your web designer life just that little bit easier.
IE6
Adbusting
Photoshop palettes applied post-production. [Via Mr Donnelly.]
2008
![The Feltron 2008 Annual Report [Detail]](assets/feltron_report_2008.png)
The Feltron 2008 Annual Report is, as ever, beautiful. Ordered.
6082560 px
![Ruler [Detail]](assets/one_mile_scroll.png)
One Mile Scroll is courtesy of the ever-inventive Mr Eatock. Scroll to the bottom and click on one of the links to witness a creative implementation of jQuery's scrolling capabilities.
W
Open Library
![Open Library [Detail]](assets/open_library.png)
Open Library, the collective behind How Very Tokyo are open for collaboration. Looks like an interesting endeavour. Watch this space.
That's the Real Shit
Not only is Gary Vaynerchuk the epitome of the internet celebrity, he also, refreshingly, talks a great deal of common sense.
Map of the Market
SmartMoney's Map of the Market provides an at-a-glance indicator of the market's current status. Red.
Visualization Lab
The New York Times' Visualization Lab allows you to create your own visualizations using data from the daily news.
Just as readers' comments on articles and blogs enhance our journalism, these visualizations – and the sparks they generate – can take on new value in a social setting and become a catalyst for discussion.
20 x 200
The equation behind 20 x 200:
(limited editions x low prices) + the internet = art for everyone
Muxtape
Muxtape founder Justin Ouellette:
I always told myself I’d remove any artist or label that contacted me and objected, no questions asked. Not a single one ever did. On the contrary, every artist I heard from was a fan of the site and excited about its possibilities.
It's depressing that the majors' didn't see this the same way as the artists they represent.
Mixtape
8tracks offers handcrafted mixtapes across a variety of genres, all supplied via an unobtrusive and elegant web-based interface.
Think radio in the 1970s, mixtapes in the 1980s, and DJ culture of the 1990s ... DJs share their talent in taste making, providing exposure for artists. Listeners get a unique blend of word-of-mouth sharing and radio programming - long the trusted means for music discovery - on a global scale.
Having opted to create an all legal service, 8tracks' openness on their legal and licensing details makes for interesting reading. It's refreshing to see a web-based service, especially one operating in the notoriously contentious world of digital music distribution, adopting such an open stance.
Adam Nash's Wonderful Minimal 2008 mix is an excellent point of entry into all things minimal and a worthwhile introduction to 8tracks' service.
The Elements of Spam
Excerpts courtesy of Generouss Q. Factotum:
The five exclamation points feel tacked on, an attempt by an inexperienced writer to breathe life into a desiccated construction.
History
Created by Melih Bilgil as part of a diploma project, History of the Internet is an animated documentary which spans the history of the internet from the age of time-sharing to the age of file-sharing, from the days of the arpanet to the days of the internet.
Created entirely using Bilgil's PICOL (Pictorial Communication Language) icons, also a part of the diploma project, the result is a restrained and very informative history of the internet's evolution. [Via Mr Banh.]
Limp
A fantastic story. You just have to admire the chutzpah of the inimitable Larry Flynt.
Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine, and Joe Francis, the man behind the Girls Gone Wild video series, are seeking Congress's help in propping up the porn market, which, they say, has become the latest victim of the global economic downturn.
Flynt is seeking a $5bn rescue package from the US government in an effort to "rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America".
Priceless.
Bars + Tones
Painstakingly crafted in Final Cut Pro by André F. Chocron - a film student from Oslo, living in Lillehammer - Bars + Tones is an elegant sixty second take on Penguin Cafe Orchestra's 'Perpetuum Mobile'.
Air Lines
Beautiful. (And just purchased.)
1.1
The demand for DRM free content is high.
Process
Under Consideration's excellent Brand New is an insightful resource into corporate brands and identities and how they are (and in some cases aren't) implemented effectively. Brand New's well-researched posts are engaging and well-written, however, it's often the comments - and the passionate debate that they harbour - that proves the interesting reading.
The lengthy discussion that surrounds the design and development of the new logo for South Dakota State University's Jacks is a lesson in how not to approach the rebranding process and is well worth reading. It also serves as a useful primer, if ever it were needed, on how to approach the redesign of a jackrabbit mascot (the university in question's mascot).
Set aside an hour. You won't be disappointed.
Anyone who has ever worked at a university won't be surprised to hear that a part of the problem with the process appeared to be a case of design by committee, a committee that included the university's bookstore manager, who stated that he, "really liked some of the eye designs" and "there were a few heads and bodies designs that stood out" too.
However, the problems also appear to have been in part due to New York based sports branding specialist Phoenix Design Works, and its reliance on online resources for its research. This, it appears, led to some impromptu primary research; in the field, so to speak.
Jenny Crickard, the Director of University Relations and a member of the logo committee stated:
To get a more accurate picture of a jackrabbit, the committee took the representatives north of campus to watch jackrabbits running. They were able to see how their bodies, ears and heads move, which would help them design a jackrabbit that fitted SDSU better.
(Phoenix Design Works' previous exposure to jackrabbits had apparently been limited to online photographs.)
In the end it appears that crowdsourcing solved the problem, with the branding opportunity offered up to the masses for a $1,000 fee. (A fee the winning designers apparently waived and contributed to the university.)
It's only fair to leave the final word with the original article's author:
Earlier this morning I set out to write a one-paragraph review of this logo. It's 10:15 p.m., I'm missing the Oscars, I have nearly 20 tabs open in Safari, and I'm just now finishing to unravel the epic evolution that involved one reputable sports logo firm, a few hundred designers (and non-designers surely), a contest, and, of course, a committee. In 18 months.
Let this be a lesson.
Prediction
A mere few hours away. The obligatory prediction.
- iPhone Nano: No
Objectified
![Objectified Typeface [Detail]](assets/objectified.png)
Get a preview of Gary Hustwit's new film Objectified. While you wait for the release schedule to roll out, why not get a copy of Hustwit's first, excellent, film Helvetica.
25
Steve Jobs:
If you look backward in this business, you'll be crushed. You have to look forward.
PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa
In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow. [Via Mr Gilmore.]
Zune
Many owners of 30GB Zune players found that the gadget. . .
Boom!
An excellent piece by Mr Gruber on the perils (and irresponsibility) of developing applications with private iPhone APIs:
The more widespread the use of private iPhone APIs becomes, the more likely it is that the iPhone will become the sort of platform where users resist installing OS updates, on the grounds that previous OS updates "broke" third-party applications they had installed.
Daytum
Invitation duly requested. [Via Mr Felton.]
Information Design
Archiving this evening I rediscovered this. A short exercise in adding information hierarchy to some release information for Alorenz, Berlin/Vienna. It's important to note that the design per se wasn't important, the brief was to look at the information hierarchy and the relationship between the different elements.
Typeface choice, in this instance, wasn't important (although Georgia is a beautifully designed typeface). What was important was the use of the different typographic elements at a designer's disposal - scale, tone, colour, space, rules... - to establish a clear information hierarchy. Using typography to tease out the underlying meaning of the elements.
I believe that, as digital media evolve, offering us ever more exciting opportunities (dynamically generated content, aggregated information...), well-structured information design - uncluttered by interactivity - will still hold true.
View Source.
Life Under the Microscope
![The 2007 Feltron Annual Report [Detail]](assets/feltron_report_2007.png)
Nicholas Felton is 31 years old and lives in New York city. He is also a supremely talented designer. His yearly 'Annual Reports', beautifully designed introspective information graphics, are exquisite in their careful attention to detail. Back issues are available here: 2005, 2006, 2007...
Roll on 2008. [Via Mr McMillan.]
Validation
Validation. Is it important?
Constructive opinion and advice from Lee Munroe:
It's worthwhile validating ... and it's good practice. Looking at the sites [below], however, - all great sites and designs - it's obvious that not having a validated website is not the end of the world.
I wholeheartedly agree. Validation is something to strive for and validation should be embraced as a part of the design process, however, validation isn't everything. Great web design is achieved through a combination of factors, validation being just one.
A brief look at some of the sites that fail to validate: Apple, Twitter, Google, 37signals... underlines this comprehensively.
Does failure to validate equate to failure full stop? It seems not.
So Fucking Brutal
I'll just get straight to the point. You've been affected by the layoffs. [Via Mr Gruber.]
Quotes on Design
Well worn words of wisdom. Not least, Scott Adams:
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.
A single serving site well worth bookmarking. [Via Mr Donnelly.]
Modular
A beautiful piece of interface design and an extremely useful and easy-to-use web application, FontShop's FontStruct is the perfect tool for the creation of modular fonts. Wim Crouwel would have appreciated this in 1967 when creating Neu Alphabet.
Experience
It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me 34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds.
Brevity
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.
Eye
Issue 70 - just arrived. Always a source of inspiration.
Sixt Ambient Advertising
Activate Wi-Fi. See our headlines. Easy as pie.
Attention to Detail
Cocoa Stuff's beautifully crafted Deep Green epitomises the attention to detail so often lacking in contemporary applications. (Cf. Deep Blue.)
In Stock
Our book is In Stock at Amazon in the US. Pre-order it now from Amazon UK.
Desk Telephone
Hulger P*PHONE - just arrived. Perfect for all those Christmas calls via Skype.
Mr Hulger is none other than the supremely talented Nicolas Roope - who spoke at this year's Belfast Design Week Digital Futures event. In addition to his role as founder and creative director of Poke London, Nicolas creates boutique electronics via Hulger.
In the commodity hungry, high turnover world of product design, Hulger products are a rarity. Designed to 'wear in', not 'wear out', Hulger's latest phone - the beautifully designed PAPPA*PHONE - is the epitome of this aesthetic. Crafted from sustainable walnut and brass it merges new and old technologies perfectly.
Zeitgeist
June 17, 2BC
Astronomers have calculated that Christmas should be in June, not December.
Researchers found a bright star which appeared over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. The star was most likely a conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, which were so close together they would have shone unusually brightly as a single "beacon of light" which appeared suddenly.
If the team is correct, it would mean Jesus was a Gemini, not a Capricorn as previously believed..
FOWD, London 2008
30 April-01 May, 2009. 2008 proved inspirational and invigorating.
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9...
Number + Word = URL
The Language of Things
From the opulent excesses of the catwalk, or the technical brilliance of a laptop computer, to the subtle refinement of a desk lamp, Deyan Sudjic - Director of the Design Museum, London - shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions.
Design as Art
It's hard to believe that Bruno Munari's Design as Art was published in 1966. It's still every bit as relevant today, over forty years later.
Five Simple Steps
First announced in 2006, Mark Boulton's Five Simple Steps - subtitled 'A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web' - will be available on 2 February, 2009. Boulton states:
Writing a book, especially a self-published book it turns out, is incredibly difficult.
Having just completed Web Standardistas' we can confirm this to be the case.
The Grid
For once a strapline that doesn't under-deliver: The ultimate resource in grid systems.
Courtesy of Antonio Carusone, the creator of the excellent AisleOne, The Grid System is an inspiring resource that's well worth bookmarking. Minimally crafted typography coupled with a restrained, yet striking, grid meet well-researched content that results in an indispensible tool for the discerning designer.
The Josef M'ller-Brockmann quote in the header underlines Malcolm Gladwell's observation that practice makes perfect:
The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires'practice.
— Josef Müller-Brockmann
Start a Conversation
One of the key themes of the excellent (and now free) Cluetrain Manifesto was the idea that markets are conversations. Central to this thesis, was the concept of starting a conversation with consumers; opening up, asking for feedback and - this is the important part - not being afraid to admit you were wrong and make changes where necessary.
If only every company had a John Nack. If only every company allowed their employees to comment openly and honestly on their different offerings.
Nack's appraisal of Adobe's shortcomings in Notes from Adobe Installer Management is worth noting as a piece of honest and open corporate communication rarely seen in this day and age.
It's refreshing to see two Adobe Engineering Managers responding to criticism and, better still, inviting feedback from consumers. In particular seeing a Senior Director of Engineering and Program Management stating: "I am the one to whom to direct your issues, concerns and questions (I have included my contact info at the end of this note). ... If you send me your contact information, I will be happy to call you up to discuss in person. I very much appreciate your direct feedback as it is what helps us make better products."
This is the way to build loyalty - start a conversation, see where it heads and respond accordingly.
Nack states that he has the following quotation pinned to his door, designed to, "help keep [his] eye on the ball about what really matters in [his] job":
When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied, "Only stand out of my light." Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.
— John W. Gardner
Mapple
My question is the following statement: operating system 4.2 has sloppier architecture than a Tijuana ant-hill. [Via Mr Donnelly.]
&
A Solid Maple Ampersand via House Industries
House Industries Housewares, perfect for keeping the Humboldt Fog and Lincolnshire Poacher separate from the Culatello di Zibello and Coppa di Parma.
24 Ways
An advent calendar for web designers and developers, 24 Ways' 2008 Edition launches today with an article on 'Easing The Path from Design to Development' by Drew McLellan designed to ensure a smooth project transition from the design to the development phase.
Bad Apple
Roger Browning on Apple's 'unrealistic' iPhone advertising:
Like death and taxes, poor customer service seems to have become one of life's inevitabilities.
Helvetireader
Courtesy of Jon Hicks, Helvetireader is "a minimal interface theme for Google Reader".
All you need is a browser that supports userscripts and, of course, Helvetica.
Rejected
Mazo, what looks like the perfect on-the-go Amazon iPhone client, has been rejected by Apple's App Store. Not by Apple, however, but by Amazon. You won't be surprised to know that we love the brand which features a carefully crafted piece of editing.
Grid Systems T-Shirt
Admirers of Joseph Muller-Brockman will love this T-Shirt available from YouWorkForThem. [Via SwissMiss.]
Graphic Design Spam
Jessica Helfand at Design Observer:
When asked in an interview why he chose to become a graphic designer, Rand famously replied: "I didn't choose. God chose."
Have you received any graphic design spam in your mailbox lately?
iPhone PSD Vector Kit
Developed by Renee Rist for Smashing Magazine, the iPhone PSD Vector Kit enables rapid iPhone prototyping. Download the PSD at Smashing Magazine.
Pattern Tap
Pattern Tap organise 'Interface Collections for Design Inspiration'. Unlike the many CSS galleries in existence, Pattern Tap is usefully organised by category: 404 Pages, Borders, Breadcrumbs, Calendars... resulting in a developer resource that is not only inspirational, but extremely functional. Browse Pattern Tap's Collections. [Via Mr Hughes.]
Stocking Fillers
Stuck for Christmas ideas? Design Observer's comprehensive list of books received is sure to give you a few ideas.
Good Shit
Success is a simple equation. Mix: 1. A pinch of what you're good at; 2. A pinch of what you love doing; 3. A pinch of what others will pay you to do. Bake. The result: Good shit.
The bottom line from the folks behind Iridesco (Harvest): "The idea is know what you're good at, and try to find out what you love doing. Once you figure those two out, think about how can you make a living out of that (if you got rich parents, feel free to skip this step)." [Via Mr Donnelly.]
Now
Sprint widgets are small content feeds operating within the Sprint Now web site for personal, non-commercial use. Any other uses, including without limitation the incorporation of advertising into or the placement of advertising associated with or targeted towards the Site content, are strictly prohibited. Play Pong now. [Via Mr Moore.]
Then
Unix Time is a system for describing points in time, defined as the number of seconds elapsed since midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. It is neither a linear representation of time nor a true representation of UTC.
10,000 Hours
Every year our students ask us what it will take to leave with a First Class Honours Degree; our answer is usually, "A great deal of hard work..." Good news, this year we can provide you with an actual, quantifiable, answer. It seems that the difference between average and world-class is 10,000 hours.