Notebook Entries from 2009
December 8, 2009
Indonesian Sets Sky Lantern World Record •
Beautiful video of 10,000+ sky lanterns floating and glowing across the night sky.
November 11, 2009
Workspace •
Photos of creative workspaces by Joseph O. Holmes.
October 8, 2009
Maya Lin’s Original Competition Submission for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial •
Maya Lin’s original submission for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial included architectural drawings and a one page description. Her entry was chosen out of 1,421 submisions.
A reminder that with strong design, less is often more.
September 2, 2009
Well Openers •
Celebrating the past 5 years, T Magazine presents the best “well” openers - the iconic T’s created by contemporary artists and designers.
August 20, 2009
Control the Sale •
Agency/client relationships are a “polite battle for control.” Blair Enns asserts that designers and agencies should aim to control the relationship for most effective results.
August 12, 2009
It’s a Medium, Not a Grande •
Brooklyn Fare rolls out a clever line of food packaging that conveys a smart-though-cheeky brand that’s not afraid to jab at the competition.
August 8, 2009
Photographe dans la Manche •
Stunning black-and-white portraits of zoo animals by photographer Nicolas Evariste.
August 1, 2009
Surf Logos •
Rip huge. Surfboard Logo Library curates a collection of logos waxed into the identity of surfing.
July 4, 2009
Michael Tyznik Redesigns the Dollar •
Functional and visually striking redesign of US paper currency crafted by Michael Tyznik as part of the Dollar ReDe$ign Project.
June 29, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson •
With typical precision and prose, Malcolm Gladwell disassembles Chris Anderson’s thesis that free is the future of commerce in the New Yorker’s review of Anderson’s newest title.
June 11, 2009
Denis Dailleux, Photographer •
Exotic images of Cairo and Egypt by French-born photographer Denis Dailleux.
A Rare Tour of IMAX Cameras •
Gizmodo’s Mark Wilson:
There are 26 IMAX film cameras in the world today. At IMAX HQ, I got to play with 4 of them (and take plenty of photographs for you).
Very cool stuff.
June 10, 2009
2009 Logo Trends •
An look back at the logo design trends of 2009.
June 9, 2009
Ten Great Free Fonts for @fontface Embedding •
Ten free fonts that support @font-face embedding in CSS3 (via Simplebits).
Crumpling as Identity •
Swanswell commits to making life’s wrinkles well with an innovative identity that’s part clever word mark, part creative texturing.
June 8, 2009
Studio Moe •
Beautiful and rustic, handmade furniture crafted from reclaimed lumber by Studio Moe.
Ajaxload •
Simple ‘loading’ icon generator that helps you create a custom indicator for whatever site you’re creating.
June 5, 2009
Lunch Bag Art •
Hand-drawn illustrations by a dad who makes a new piece of lunch bag art each day for his kids during his lunch break at work. Incredibly fun.
Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward •
Photos of Frank Lloyd Wright’s largest single site collection, Child of the Sun, at Florida Southern College. The photos are part of an exhibit titled Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward showing the Guggenheim Museum in New York, May 15–August 23, 2009.
June 4, 2009
Airline Logos •
A collection of 150 vintage airline logos from around the world, courtesy of the Museum of Flight.
Facestape •
Moustaches, googley-eyes, schnozes - oh my! Children’s store Our Childrens Gorilla takes mundane packing tape to new heights of expression.
Flags of Imaginary Nations •
A collection of photos that would make apt banners for yet-to-be-founded nations.
June 3, 2009
Subway Systems of the World, Presented on the Same Scale •
As the name implies, a visual collection of the world’s subway systems drawn to the same scale. Great for eyeballing the sprawling size of Seoul compared to the relative simplicity of Vancouver.
Flipping Typical •
If you’ve ever found yourself making a lists of type set in different fonts, highlight and change no more. Flipping Typical is a simple and seamless Web-based tool for previewing text set in different font faces - using the system fonts installed on your computer.
The Xerox Star UI •
The Ministry of Type takes a squinty-eyed look at the pixel-perfect attention to detail in the Xerox Star UI.
June 2, 2009
40 Excellent Logos Created with Helvetica •
A collection of heavy-hitter logos, all designed with the ubiquitous Helvetica.
8 Simple Ways to Improve Typography In Your Designs •
Rock-solid primer on Web typography from AisleOne.
June 1, 2009
Picture Show: Traffic! •
In honor of Conan O’Brien’s first night hosting The Tonight Show, dizzying photos of Los Angeles traffic.
May 18, 2009
A Treasury of Wood Type Online •
Great collection of wood type from the Hamilton Manufacturing Co., courtesy of Hoefler & Frere-Jones.
Mantras: Joe Lertola’s maps •
Infographics from Time’s Joe Lertola featuring 3D cartography.
May 7, 2009
Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper? •
Jacek Utko opines about the role design can take in revitalizing the modern newspaper at TED.
Kitchens, Etc. •
Engrossing collection of vintage kitchen photos from the archives at Shorpy.
May 6, 2009
Neon Sign Boneyard •
The Boneyard in Las Vegas is where all good Sin City neon goes to die. Until I have the chance to go back and take my own photos, I’ll have to settle for a vicarious tour through this great Flickr photo set.
Paper-Made Typography •
Intricate paper typography made by hand (via Coudal).
May 5, 2009
50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory •
A collection of articles and tutorials on graphic design, including some previously linked to from this site.
Modern Alphabets •
Scanned images of type from the 1864 publication Examples of Modern Alphabets Ornamental and Plain.
April 13, 2009
All 120 Crayon Names, Color Codes and Fun Facts •
For the five-year-old designer inside all of us, ColourLovers nails down the Crayola color palette for onscreen design. Now you can design your links in Burnt Sienna, Carnation Pink, Cornflower or traditional Blue.
April 8, 2009
Capturing Hand Painted Signs in the North •
An otherworldly collection of sign typography from the streets of India, captured by Kayleigh Ryley at the Society of Publication Designers.
I took most of my photos from the back of a bike rickshaw in crowded side streets…It’s kind of like trying to tie your shoe while finding your way through a fun house at a county fair.
A Horse of a Different Color •
Lexington, Kentucky sports a logo of a different color for the World Equestrian Games, courtesy of Pentagram.
To me, this is what branding is all about. It’s iconic; it’s creative while keeping true to the client; and I love the saddle-blanket-as-event-banner concept.
Vintage Supermarket Photos •
My guacamole-loving friends would go crazy over the ten cent avocados. A great collection of vintage supermarket photos from the 1950s (via Coudal).
March 27, 2009
Floating Sign Photography by Matt Siber •
Matt Siber’s ethereal, post-modern photographs of commercial signage floating eerily in midair.
Coudal Partners’ Layer Tennis Week 5 | Layer 1 •
Layer Tennis luchador Armin Vit puts five typographic terms in an illustrative headlock in round one of the March 20, 2009, Coudal Partners’ Layer Tennis match.
March 23, 2009
Deep Font Challenge •
Step on up and test your knowledge of font minutiae in this carnival-style game for typographic sharpshooters.
Digital Marketing: The Golden Rules of the Web •
Proverbs for socializing online from AdAge.
Moffett’s Law •
DesignADay’s Jack Moffet on the importance of usability in implementation:
Another way of stating this is that it is hard to make things easy…But as I told one of my co-workers today, it’s better to inconvenience one developer during implementation than to inconvenience every user for the life of the product.
Exactly.
March 19, 2009
Exploring Cufón •
Cameron Moll reviews the differences between the popular font embedding technique sIFR and relative newcomer Cufón, with a great set of examples.
Cufón’s lack of text selection and a :hover attribute give me pause, but I completely sympathize with Moll’s desire to never have to open Flash again.
Ignacio Macri Logo Design •
Inspiring set of logos from Argentinean designer Ignacio Macri (via Simplebits)
jQuery Sparklines •
Splunk’s Gareth Watts releases a sparkline generator plugin for jQuery that I can’t wait to try.
March 11, 2009
Infographias Sobre Tauromaquia •
While bullfighting elicits a range of emotions from fans and critics, these infografias sobre tauromaquia (infographics on bullfighting) from Spain garner cheers of “Olé!” for their creative spreads diagramming the ritual and pageantry of bullfighting. Also worth applauding, these bullfighting infographics from countries beyond the Iberian Penninsula.
March 2, 2009
KÄSCH In-Floor Bathtubs Keep Luxury On the Down-Low •
In-floor bathtubs bring openness and the vibe of jacuzzi luxury to European homes. I just hope they come with a cover so that you don’t accidently fall in.
Fuego Modular •
Red-hot modular outdoor kitchen by Fuego (via Coudal).
February 23, 2009
26 Years, 85 Notebooks •
Graphic designer Michael Bierut on the importance of notebooks.
The notebooks function like a security blanket for me. I can’t go into a meeting unless I have my current notebook in my hand, even if I never open it.
I agree. More how Michael Bierut use of design notebooks (via 43 Folders).
Drawing Board to the Desktop: A Designer’s Path •
A New York Times profile by Pentagram partner and graphic designer Michael Bierut:
When I arrived for class on Monday, my poster was in every hallway, in every stairwell and on every bulletin board in school. Among my peers, I was considered a good artist, but the miracle of mass production took things to a different level. More people saw my poster than would see the play. It was then that I decided to become a graphic designer.
February 17, 2009
Inside the Graphic Design Archives at RIT •
An amazing photo-field trip inside the Graphic Design Archives at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The Graphic Design Archives includes one of the most complete collections of the work of American graphic designers from 1950–1980 including works by Paul Rand, Lester Beall, Saul Bass and others.
New Work: The Museum of Modern Art •
MoMA’s Creative Director for Graphics and Advertising Julia Hoffmann reapplies the iconic MoMA logotype with the help of Pentagram, bringing a much more modern feel to the museum’s printed collateral.
February 11, 2009
Give Up and Use Tables •
A reminder against semantic navel gazing:
We’ve scientifically determined the maximum amount of time that you should need to make a layout work in CSS: it’s 47 minutes.
I’m looking forward to the 10 minutes to get a doughnut part.
MoMA Atlantic/Pacific •
Breathtaking, in a good way: MoMA’s takeover of the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station.
In a gift to the city’s subway riders, MoMA takes over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station, filling the station with reproductions of over 50 works of art in the MoMA collection. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, walk through the station to see images of works by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Charles Eames, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and many other great artists, filmmakers, and designers.
In Brief: The Wrong Kind of Breathtaking •
Brand New on the justification behind Pepsi’s new identity system:
The contents are at once hilarious, pretentious and delirious as they try to establish Pepsi as the center of the universe.
Considering the time and effort that went into the creation of this document will literally take your breath away.
February 9, 2009
Paul-Rand.com •
An incredibly dense resource for all things Paul Rand including a gallery of work, biography and overview of the designer’s philosophy.
Saul Bass: Jack of All Trades •
A great collection of movie poster and logo designs by the eminent Saul Bass.
January 27, 2009
List of 10+ Usability-Conscious Link Styles Done in CSS •
Web designers too often overlook semantic, usability and aesthetic possibilities when designing the simple text link. This comprehensive list covers the options from simple CSS styling to more advanced enhancements available in the new CSS 3 specification, with examples.
January 16, 2009
A More Useful 404 •
A List Apart gets back to basics with great advice for designing 404 pages from Dean Frickey:
Often, developers provide custom 404 pages to make the experience a little less frustrating. However, for a custom 404 page to be truly useful, it should not only provide relevant information to the user, but should also provide immediate feedback to the developer so that, when possible, the problem can be fixed.
Required reading.
Redesigned: New York Philharmonic •
Redesigned by Pentagram partner Paula Scher, the new identity for the New York Philharmonic challenged my preconceptions about italic text. I love the simplicity, the clarity of message and the attention to typographic detail, but what really blew me away were the branding applications for products and collateral. With this success, Scher completes a typographic trifecta including her logos for The Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet.
TiltShiftMaker •
From Dan Benjamin:
Tilt-shift refers to tilting a camera lens relative to the image plane combined with using a large aperture to create a shallow depth of field. The result is a real-life picture that appears to look like a miniature model.
If you get as giddy about the tilt-shift effect as I do, but don’t have room in your camera kit for a dedicated lens, this Web site is for you. Enjoy.
Corporate Risk Watch •
Corporate Risk Watch has garnered a lot of buzz from the online design community for an innovative design. While the writing could use more substance, I have to admit that the clever use of blue underline and the unabashedly bold rollover menus are fantastic.
Elegant Web Typography •
A thorough, well-balanced and dead-on overview of Web typography presented by Jeff Croft (via Subtraction). This is required reading for anyone who designs online.
The United States of Logos •
Identities from all 50 states.