Dieter Rams: ten principles for good design
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Tag Archives: design
The Closed, Unfriendly World Of Wikipedia
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The Closed, Unfriendly World Of Wikipedia. Right now, Wikipedia is busy asking for donations to stay afloat. Here’s a thought. If it wants donations, maybe open things up so that outsiders feel like they can contribute expert knowledge without wasting their time.
Downloadable pack of Avatars for web/psd mock-ups | Sarah Parmenter, a web and UI designer.
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Microsoft Socl: inside the company’s secret social network (exclusive) | The Verge
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Microsoft Socl: inside the company’s secret social network (exclusive) | The Verge. A peak at a Social Network (research project) designed by Microsoft.
Distractions – November 2, 2010
I just checked and it’s been about nine months since I’ve posted a set of distractions. It’s not like I haven’t had any. That said, here are some things that have caught my interest over the past couple of days.
Media Surfaces: Incidental Media – Probably my favorite this week. Great video by Berg Design exploring the future of media social and otherwise. See also Media Surfaces: The Journey which is part 2 of the series.
Jane McGonigal’s Sunday Sermon at the School of Life – More fantastic stuff from Jane McGonigal on games, happiness and productivity. Very much worth your time if you are a fan of hers.
Heytell iPhone/Android App – Recommended by my buddy Adam Cutler, this app is just as he says “Seriously, this is one of the best apps in a while.” It turns your phone into a combo voice messenger/walkie-talkie. Incredibly useful and already on my iPhone home screen.
Khoi Vinh on the state of Magazines on the iPad – I’ve been meaning to write something about Magazines on the iPad for a little bit now. It’s one of my only disappointments so far with my iPad. More later on this.
Last, but not least, RockMelt. It’s a social network integrated web browser. Make sure to watch the video. This looks pretty interesting and I’m very eager to play with it for a bit. Sort of tangentially relates to the first Berg video. I really think that there is something here.
Oops! One more that I meant to post but forgot in the initial writing.
I’m loving this commercial for Call of Duty: Black Ops. I’m not a big fan of Kobe, but I think his appearance adds to the commercial and if you have played any of the earlier versions of the game, you’ll probably get a laugh at the writing on the side of Jimmy Kimmel’s weapon. At any rate, Gimme Shelter has been in rotation on the iPod as of late and already I’ve pre-ordered my copy of game.
From the “What Do We Do With These Unconnected Dots?” Desk
Even after a number of years being in front of a room for workshops, small group briefings or larger presentations, sometimes I still get a little bit of nerves. Typically, when this happens, my brain works faster than my mouth (or maybe it is the other way around) and what I want to say doesn’t come out exactly in the way that I wanted to say it.
In hindsight, I think this was a little bit true last night. I think I pretty much shared all of the big picture things that I wanted to say, but I’m not sure that I connected the dots in the way that I had hoped to…so….I thought I might try to do that in a quick blog post…as an addendum to my presentation last night.
But before I try to do that, I wanted to say that I had an absolute blast being one of the panelists and speakers on the Flying cars are here! The futuristic present of marketing panel last night.
Thank you Mike Proulx for inviting me to participate and I really echo all of the other things that were said about the event that you, Hill Holliday and the Social Media Club put on last night. It was absolutely excellent.
Okay, so onto the dots…
The National Geographic Explorer Catalog
Not that I have any significant knowledge about the topic, but I am a closet typophile.
National Geographic, known for its beautiful photography, maps and yellow border (among other things), publishes a beautifully designed catalog (especially the typography) of their trips and tours called National Geographic Expeditions (website).
There is not much advertising mail that I receive (and I think we receive our fair share, maybe more now with the baby) that makes it out of our mailbox too much past my home office garbage pail, but I love this catalog.
The layout, photography, maps and yes, the typography, are beautiful. The sight of the new one in the mailbox brings a smile to my face. When it arrives, I thumb through it at least a couple of times and I think I’ve got a pile of about six or seven of them that I’ve saved for no other reason than that they are just absolutely beautiful.
The trips are definitely out of our price range, but if Kim and I won the lottery then taking some of these trips would be near the top of my list of things that I’d like to do simply because of their catalog. (Did I say I like the catalog?)
After searching for a bit, I think they’ve just recently started to publish a digital and PDF version on their site…which is fantastic because I can now thumb through it on my iPad.
There is a probably a side note here on the design of media for the iPad or other tablet devices as they begin to arrive – that if you make beautiful designs, you don’t have to add motion or video to everything to make it compelling or engaging. For me, the National Geographic Explorer catalog is just as joyful (if not even more so) on the iPad as it is in physical print because the design of the document itself is beautiful.
(I think of what Flipboard has done with Twitter and Facebook as another proof point of this idea.)