Design

Just Like Being There

Scout Shannon

One of the smartest things Just Like Being There does is to go out of its way not to ignore the “gig” part of “gig posters”. The film is thick with music in both the background and foreground, and the handful of live performances it features do a good job of capturing that certain kind of magic that only a great rock show can provide. Capturing that magic is… See more →

This is the most fun I’ve had with Illustrator and Photoshop in awhile.

I have owned LetterMpress from the beginning, but this is the first time I actually dug into it. Fun!

“Wait, don’t I have another book on ornament? Oh yeah. I do.” instagr.am/p/HMqO96BM0e/

Finally upgraded to a @dribbble Pro account. No idea why it took me this long. dribbble.com/robweychert

Home alone on a Saturday night. Scowling at the OS X Lion Character Viewer’s inclusion of Emoji. These are not unrelated happenings.

Designers who work in direct mail are mercenaries, but I’ll give them credit for choosing paper stock that is very easily shredded by hand.

Is it still too early for me to go back to building web sites with tables for layout and call them “artisanal”?

Despite all our justified griping about its bloat and various issues, Photoshop is still a lot of fun to use for certain tasks.

“We need to think about products over posters and people over page views.” That @FictiveCameron is a gem. alistapart.com/articles/an-im…

Overdressed for unseasonal warmth, hauled ass on bike to be on time for slick @TypecastApp demo, nearly barfed in elevator.

Baffled by people bitching about Gmail/Reader’s new look. The old look was a fucking nightmare.

I’m curious to see how this will be used in static instances. I love the idea that frames from the animation could be selected at random, per usage. The type anchors the identity, but its ever shifting representation reinforces the concept of “current”. “Now” becomes “then” as soon as you say it. Very cool.

I had only just recently decided to leave the game industry and return to the web when A List Apart published Ethan Marcotte’s pivotal article, “Responsive Web Design”. Since Ethan is a close friend, I assumed and continue to assume that his landmark discovery was specifically timed to validate my decision with firm authority. This was very, very exciting stuff.

This site is my first full-scale attempt at responsive design. It uses one template for… See more →

Apocalyptic Adobe Illustrator CS5 tantrum in 3… 2… 1…

The only update I really want from BBEdit is a logo that isn’t visually exhausting.

Jaw. Slack.

Whoever you are, you should know that @beep did a helluva job on that there bostonglobe.com.

Seriously, why on earth would you include ligatures in a monospace font?

Just so you know, @itscolossal was easily my favorite blog discovery from this summer. thisiscolossal.com

If you haven’t seen @jasonsantamaria’s beautiful new site yet, you should really get on it: jasonsantamaria.com

Dreamt that A Tribe Called Quest woke me up from a nap to ask me to design their web site. I had some good ideas before I woke up for real.

Even for kids like me who grew up with cassettes and CDs, a good album cover helped make the music magic. Thank you, Alex Steinweiss. RIP.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the infectious joy of @jessiarrington: ted.com/talks/jessi_ar…

Done. It’s not optimized for this pixel resolution, but the vector is finalized. Since the last version:

1. The bowl of the R has gotten a tiny bit shorter, so the counter’s height corresponds to that of the bottom of the stem.
2. The initials sit just a bit larger inside the circle, and they’re cheated a smidge above the actual center to align with the optical center (per Travis’s comment).

I’m sure there’s more nitpicking I could… See more →

Locked up. I may still get more OCD about the R’s proportions (the height of the bowl is still somewhat arbitrary, for example). But I also may not.

My lack of a logo, though not really a liability, has been gnawing at me for years. So I started doing some sketches today, and before long I had a rougher version of what you see here. It won’t stop anyone in their tracks, but I think what it lacks in distinction it makes up for in austere strength, and it’s built from the kind of geometry that informs my general aesthetic. It’s also a… See more →

The teen me would be perplexed to learn that I would one day prefer typesetting scientific journals to designing rock and roll video games.

Tried the Wired iPad app since the new issue was free. I want Sean Connery to address the creative director: “Indiana. Let it go.”

Much of the best design is unglamorous and invisible, and it deserves equal accolades to those enjoyed by stunning aesthetics. #1D4D

Building a dynamic HTML guitar with @shauninman. @ Hampton Inn Downtown gowal.la/c/3JTGn

Two Morphine albums’ worth of hand-cut, blank business cards awaiting personalization at SXSW. instagr.am/p/CJQmi

I don’t like the execution, but the idea is adorable.

And today’s award for “Unconscious Lettering Influence Taken From Megadeth’s Logo” goes to…

Going into college, I thought graphic design was mostly about drawing with a mouse. Lots of MS Paint and Mario Paint in my portfolio.

“Enjoy The [Philadelphia] Inquirer online where it looks like a paper you hold in your hands but performs in ways you never imagined.” Ugh.

The spread for activities 8 and 9 (image 5 of 9) completely kills me.

If the material is as sturdy as it needs to be, then this is awesome.

Hey Alanis, THIS is ironic:

Naturally, this book was considered extremely dangerous by the victorious Allies when they occupied Germany at the end of World War II. Copies of this book were confiscated and destroyed by the tens of thousands with the result that few originals survived the war and fewer yet survived complete and in good condition.

Everything I design this week looks like it’s trying to sell dish detergent or Mexican liquor. Or alcoholic Mexican dish detergent.

The Nerduo owns you. nerduo.com

Khoi does a pretty fantastic job of encapsulating Mad Men’s virtues.

This is how you do wayfinding. @ Brooklyn Museum instagr.am/p/1Xy1