Design

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 →

Jaw. Slack.

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

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.

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

Sigh.

The song is bland as hell, but the video is really, really well done.

I would have omitted the Misfits logo, made the eyes completely black, and dialed the date back thirty years, but still, this is pretty rad.

Oh, fuck you.

This is for those of you poor fools who labor under the illusion that you are or one day will be good at something.

I can’t put my finger on what I like so much about this poster. I do know that something about its seemingly random noise invited me to explore it, and that the actual information is easily discernible despite that noise, thanks to a clear focal point and succinct text.

Of all the stuff I worked on at Harmonix, this is easily the thing I spent the most time on.

Jesus.

I haven’t tried the Wired iPad app yet, but my nodding-in-agreement bordered on headbanging when I read this:

Let’s make this clear once and for all: at the current surface and resolution of the iPad, multi column layouts for long screen texts are sentimental nonsense.

And it’s not even my birthday yet.

Pretty neat trick.

I am such a sucker for this stuff.

Ingenious and beautiful.

This is light on actual information, but for any UI folks interested in how shit happens here, these slides give you a glimpse into the process.

Awesome. I’m thinking about making a screen saver for myself inspired by this.

Too bad the type on the bottom is an afterthought, but otherwise, I quite like this.

Get out of my head, Liz.

With all due respect to Mr. Schachter, one of these things is not like the others.

This is great, but I do wish the knights were each represented with an N, as they are in proper chess notation. pushes up glasses

When I was growing up, holidays offered early indications that communication design was in my future.

Determined to avoid disappointment on Christmas morning, I made what I wanted perfectly clear to both Santa Claus and my parents, constructing lists that were not only categorized and prioritized, but cross-referenced with several catalogs.

My approach to Halloween was no less meticulous. Putting together appropriately macabre costumes certainly appealed to my creativity, but as a child of the… See more →

In 1993, Washington DC’s fertile indie rock scene gave birth to a band called The Dismemberment Plan. Musically, it skirted genre conventions inconspicuously. Lyrically, it found wisdom and poetry in the commonplace. The whole package was a rare, fun, magical blend of sophisticated and approachable, and the band built a respectable and devoted following with it.

Ten years later, not long after releasing its fourth and arguably best album, The Dismemberment Plan decided to call… See more →

Conceptually trite and kinda sickeningly precious, but the visual thinker in me still likes it.

No no no no no no no no. No.

I don’t think the font itself has much going for it beyond the gimmick, but I am completely amazed by that driver’s control.

Remember Kevin’s design vigilante concept? This guy is doing it. Awesome.

This is part of a massive series for the current No Doubt tour, and they’re all pretty nice. Check out the rest.

I was blown away by this until I learned that they’re just doing separations in Photoshop and tracing them. Still kinda cool.

Why is Scott Kim the only ambigram artist given credit here?

I have the PDF if you have a hard time downloading it. It’s... wow.

What a year this turned out to be.

Shortly after the year began, my time with the amazing team at Happy Cog ended. It was the best thing for all concerned, even if my lack of an exit strategy left me without direction. My comfort zone was toxic, so really, any direction would do.

I set out to get healthy, physically and mentally. I got my finances in order. I drove 9,400 miles around the… See more →

Thanks in large part to Rob Across America, this has been the most traveled year of my life, but it’s not over yet. Before I disappear under a pile of blankets for the winter, I have a few more North American destinations lined up for the fall. If you happen to see me in any of these places, I hope you’ll say hello.

Ottawa, September 17th–21st

For the seventh time in ten years, I’ll be… See more →

On the Web

• Dear Lulu: A downloadable book of print samples you can use to test the capabilities of print-on-demand services. Such a great idea.

In the Stereo

• Faraquet: Anthology 1997–98
• Don Caballero: Punkgasm

On the Silver Screen

• Man on Wire

In Print

• The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nunzio DeFillippis, and Kevin Cornell
• How Life Imitates Chess by… See more →

Okay, I have to make this really quick, because I’m already leaving much later than I wanted to. Leaving for what, you ask? A month-long, cross-country road trip, naturally. I made a web site for it which is where I’ll be writing exclusively for the next month (not that you expected to see anything new here). My bitchin’ Corolla is leaving Philadelphia momentarily—jump in the passenger seat!

On the Web

• We Bleed Design: The style is a bit trendy for my taste, but the site employs some very novel and intriguing transitions using a clever combination of JavaScript, CSS, and transparent PNGs.

In the Stereo

• Pharaoh: Be Gone
• Rupa & The April Fishes: Extraordinary Rendition

On the Silver Screen

• The Last House in the Woods
• Spine Tingler!: The William Castle Story
• Fata Morgana
• Black House
• Blast of Silence
• Deadline U.S.A.
• Passion and… See more →

On the Web

• Binary Marble Adding Machine: An amazingly simple wooden machine that performs calculations using marbles. Don’t miss the video demo!
• Muxtape: Remarkably simple site that lets you make a mixtape online. Check out mine.
• Penguin Classics Tumblr Theme: Beautifully rendered by Max Wheeler.

My fourth year at Austin’s juggernaut of an interactive conference was more of a mixed bag than years past, as both I and SXSW adapted to its growing pains.

This year’s conference was, I believe, about three times the size of my first (in 2005). Daytime sessions expanded to remote areas of Austin’s sprawling convention center, and overcrowded lunch and evening activities tested even Texas’s deft corralling hand. Those who knew the territory well enough… See more →

March has arrived, and since college basketball doesn’t interest me any more than a zombified messiah figure selling chocolate or an ophidiophobic Irish folk hero selling Budweiser, March means just one thing: South by Southwest. In just a few days, I will descend on Austin for nearly a week’s worth of quality time with good friends and good ideas. If you see me there, I hope you won’t hesitate to say hello. Here are some… See more →

On the Web

• Opening the Windows Vista Box: Because it seriously can’t be done without a fucking tutorial.
• Brown Tape Art: Mark Khaisman creates some stunning images with translucent brown packing tape backlit on plexiglass.
• Bobby Fischer, Chess Master, Dies at 64: He may have been an asshole, but man could he play.
• Lasagna Cat: A wonderfully bizarre collection of videos putting Jim Davis in his place.
• The Amen Break: The history of the world’s… See more →

On the Web

• Fray Returns: The beloved site filled with true stories is reborn as a printed quarterly volume!
• Design Doing: A nice roundup and response to recent conversations regarding the relevance of web design within the greater spectrum of design.
• Charts and Graphs of Rap Song Lyrics: The title says it all. Fall-down funny stuff.
• Curriculum Vitae: The long-awaited followup to The Story of Eh, this fantastic new book of comics from Kevin Cornell… See more →

On the Web

• Behind the Scenes of Layer Tennis: Chris Glass details his side of the Layer Tennis match he played with Naz Hamid.
• The Pothole: My first guest contribution to The Superest!
• The Superest: A wonderful new site from Kevin Cornell and Matt Sutter, determined to determine who is the superest of them all.
• Radio Orphan Annie’s Secret Decoder Badges: A brief history of the decoder pins used by Radio Orphan Annie’s Secret Society… See more →

On the Web

• Cassette MP3 Player: If I ever get around to installing Windows, I will so own one of these.
• My Team Vs. Your Team: Sutter Vs. Cornell Vs. Cornell in an epic, illustrated battle of superhero one-upmanship. See another match here.
• Photoshop Layer Tennis: The triumphant return of my favorite Friday afternoon design nerd diversion!
• Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8: An Onion article that is not so farfetched.
• A Brief Message: A new site dedicated… See more →

Another busy summer has come and gone, most of the fruits of which are still not quite ripe enough to talk about. I do, however, have a few things going on this month that are worth a mention.

Screens ’N’ Spokes

Throughout the year and across the country, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society hosts the MS Bike Ride, a lengthy cycling excursion whose participants have raised a considerable amount of money to fight the organization’s… See more →

On the Web

• Siggi Eggertsson: Eye-popping geometric impressionism.
• Isaac Tobin: An outstanding graphic design portfolio. I’m particularly fond of his book covers.
• I Love Typography: A new blog whose title says it all.
• Everyone’s a Design Critic: Stan and I are cooking up a presentation for next year’s SXSW, and we’d love to have your vote.
• Turkey: Kevin Cornell’s submission for a comics contest in Philadelphia’s City Paper. I am of the strong opinion that you… See more →