Invention’s Lineage
Thought: If necessity is the mother of invention, then whimsy must be its father.
Web Typographers, Rejoice
Finally, your site will be able to display beautiful fonts without Flash replacement technology. Adobe has just offered several typefaces for website design and development through the Typekit project. Typekit supports a wide array of browsers, and users who don’t have a supported browser will simply see the default typeface, like Arial or Verdana. Typekit’s costs are ...
The Return of Album Art
I remember wanting to be an album cover artist. Of course, I was probably ten at the time, but shortly thereafter cassette tapes began to overtake record albums, and everyone lamented the demise of album cover artwork. It was slightly resucitated with the advent of CDs (hey, a 5×5 inch surface is better than a ...
Two New Sites
This weekend, I launched two new sites for friends / family. Stefanie Zadravec is a very talented playwright; she is also my wife. The fact that she wanted a site that was clear, simple, and easy-to-navigate was good, because I did the coding, and I’m no coder. Her blog will be up and running soon ...
Farewell, Leslie Buck
Before I’d moved to New York, I’d see movies and TV shows where people walked around the city carrying these little blue coffee cups. I had no idea what they were, but I sensed they represented New York. When I moved here ten years ago, I saw the cups everywhere. I loved their simple, friendly ...
The Ugly American
Today’s Big Picture features amazing images from the soon-to-be-opened Shanghai World Expo. One thing struck me, however: many of the international pavilions demonstrate design that is full of whimsy and beauty, whereas the U.S. pavilion looks surprisingly like a metal-clad industrial park building. So, what happened? Am I missing something? Did someone forget to send ...
So You Need A Typeface
Thanks to Richard Smith for pointing me to this fun (and actually useful) flow chart.
Don’t Forget the Favicon
It’s a small detail that won’t necessarily make or break your site, but the favicon does have its benefits. For one thing, it allows users who bookmark your site to associate a visual mnemonic with your web presence. When they’re rifling through their favorites, a favicon might help your site stand out. And, because many ...
Give No Explanation
David Hockney once said, “It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work.” A similar sentiment was conveyed by my graduate school mentor, Marvin Harden, who asked that we not speak about our own work during critiques. Instead, our classmates and, of course, Professor ...
Cinema Redux Print
Coudal is selling what I think might be one of the coolest printsI’ve seen. Here’s their description of it: “Brendan Dawes’ very special limited-edition based on our unending obsession with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Brendan explains, ‘A specially written piece of software takes a tiny snapshot of the film every second. Each row contains sixty ...
More Wireframe Tools
I’m in the middle of a project using mockflow. I’m pretty impressed with it. However, I’m also trying HotGloo, as well as Mockingbird which is great for quick sketching. And, my friend and colleague Graham turned me on to FlairBuilder last week. While many of these apps are very similar, they all have certain strengths ...
What Type Are You?
Pentagram has a developed an online psychoanalytic tool (the password is “character”) to help you determine which typeface best represents your personality. It’s four simple questions, and the format of the test will surprise you. According to this, I am New Alphabet form Wim Crouwel. (Here is Mr. Crouwel from the movie Helvetica describing how ...
Ugliness Degrades Usability
I often tell people that a good-looking site is also a more usable site. My reasoning goes like this: a major factor in usability is trust. If you don’t trust a site, you’re less likely to use it. In other words, ugly visual design is similar to an overly-complex layout: it prevents people from progressing ...
Wordle
Wordle will generate those interesting word-cloud images you see around the Web from words you paste or URLs you provide. On top of that, you can modify a lot of settings to customize your image. The cloud above was generated from the words on the home page of this blog as of January 2, 2010.
The Pee Fly Solution
Two truisms: The most effective solution to a problem must acknowledge human behavior The simplest solution is usually the best solution In a practice that began over 20 years ago, urinals around the world are starting to be engraved with one small black fly each. Why? Because it’s a known fact that men like to ...
