Design

On the Web

• Chris Harding Animation Concern: Wonderfully designed cartoons reminiscent of Gene Deitch-era Terrytoons.
• A Whole New Internet?: Jason Kottke assesses the State of the Web Union
• Guess the Google: A fun Flash quiz game using Google Image Search
• 54 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena
• Amusement Park in Decay: Three pages of lovely photos (1, 2, 3)
• Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Sound advice from Mark Boulton.
• Singles Night at Wal*Mart: I think I… See more →

On the Web

• Writing, Briefly: Excellent writing tips from Paul Graham.
• Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies.
• Frusion Breakfast Brawl: Addictive Punch Out-style Flash game.
• “The Most Expensive Album Never Made”: Detailed history of Guns ’N’ Roses’ doomed Chinese Democracy.
• Pimp My Safari: New online hub for Safari browser customization from Jon Hicks.
• Guess the Dictator and/or Television Sit-Com Character: This online game of 20 (or more) questions is actually quite difficult to… See more →

If you told me, in any tone approximating enthusiasm, that you had visited my site in the last year or so (for a reason other than the out-of-left-field hit, Virtual Stan), you would have been met with an incredulous look. This incredulity would have had nothing to do with false modesty or my tendency toward self-deprecation or my inability to believe that you had managed to operate a web-accessible digital device. It would be a… See more →

If there is one thing I can rarely be accused of, it is self-satisfaction. In this site’s three years of existence, I have fully mocked up no fewer than 18 designs for it, only three of which somehow found their way online. Ironically, the last of these was thrown together in less than an hour—a stripped-down, panicked replacement for an expired version I couldn’t stand to look at anymore. This “temporary” solution has now enjoyed… See more →

In the 77 days since I last posted:

I started a new full-time design job at TMX Communications. My face graced television screens nationwide in several episodes of VH1’s ILL-ustrated. I finished the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University that I started ten years ago. I saw Andrew W.K. for the ninth time. I had my 28th birthday. My bedroom was swarmed by dozens of winged ants. I got a cellular phone. I… See more →

Spaceboy Music got the new Tortoise album, It’s All Around You, nearly two weeks ahead of its release date, so I did too. I like it, and I expect to like it more as I listen to it more, but there are no great departures from the oft-imitated Tortoise sound to report, and nothing noteworthy about this newest assemblage of ambling, polyrhythmic post-rock that wasn’t already made noteworthy on one of the band’s previous outings.… See more →

I’m not often interested in shows that could conceivably sell out in less than five minutes after tickets have been made available, so imagine my disappointment when that exact thing happened on Friday as I waited in line for Darkness tickets. Now it appears that my only chances at seeing what will probably be the best show of the year are spending upwards of $100 on eBay or winning a radio station contest, neither of… See more →

Philadelphia is in the eye of a winter storm today; the snow and ice already coating the ground will soon be joined by reinforcements. During this temporary absence of airborn aggravation, my inbox is relentlessly pounded by dozens of MyDoom/Novarg messages. I delete them to the tune of Talkie Walkie, Air’s triumphant return to the magical realm of Very Good Music (after vacationing in Mediocre Music with 10,000 Hz Legend).

Meanwhile, Jason Santa Maria has unveiled… See more →

Over the last couple of months, this site has offered its visitors little respite from boredom. I’ll make no apologies for this, since the lack of updates results directly from my own boredom, which is itself respite from my heated, ongoing battle with the coding of the site’s long-overdue web standards-compliant redesign. There have, however, been a few recent occasions that my attention has been occupied by something other than a spot on the wall… See more →

Since Pittsburgh is the other big city in Pennsylvania, and I had never been there, I decided to check it out with Merritt this past weekend. The chosen weekend was timely; The Animation Show (which isn’t scheduled to visit Philadelphia) was screening in Pittsburgh, and since I wasn’t going to Ottawa this year, this was a good excuse to drive several hours to see some animation, and see whatever else Pittsburgh had to offer while… See more →

The sleepless National Film Challenge weekend is behind me and its results have far exceeded both my expectations and my hopes. Our film is called Dial-A-Spy, and there’s not much I could write about it here that I didn’t already write in the Production Notes on the Dial-A-Spy web site, where the film itself can be seen as well. Enjoy!

There has been plenty going on, but I haven’t had much to say about any of it. Lightning Bolt, Hangedup, Battles, and Lost in Translation are all great and were all taken in last week. Over the weekend, I saw a bumper sticker that said “Abortion Causes Breast Cancer,” watched my dear friend Mary get married, and cheered as some friends’ 48-hour film submission took 2nd place in the 2003 CAmm Slamm in Baltimore. At… See more →

Kevin Cornell recently launched Bearskinrug version 4; it is as delicious as might be expected.

Lots of shows lately: The Raveonettes, Luna, Stinking Lizaveta, Mogwai, Andrew W.K. Some scattered moments: Meathead Group A on the TLA floor uses cell phones to call Meathead Group B in the balcony to alert Group B to being given the finger by Group A. “E-A-G-L-E-S!” chants abound. The Troc house lights don’t go up until Luna has played not… See more →

The summer technically ends on September 22 (as anyone eagerly anticipating the redesign of this site should note), but most people pack up their lawn sprinklers and sun dresses after Labor Day, moribundly lumping the whole of September into the Autumn category. Apparently Mother Nature’s embitterment toward this trend compelled her to adjust the calendar herself; it was 65º and raining in Philadelphia this afternoon. The crap weather seems to have followed me back here… See more →

Why am I always the last to know about these things? I have just recently been made aware of Flügtag (“flying day”), a “sport” co-opted by Red Bull in which very silly people launch very silly homemade flying machines off a very high ramp into an unsuspecting body of water. Clearly, this is something I need to participate in; alas, the closest the Flügtag tour is coming to Philadelphia is NYC on October 5, and… See more →

The long-awaited Camp Naked Terror 2 web site is finally up, complete with pictures and video from the event for your viewing pleasure. See for yourself.

I was going to begin this long-overdue post with a verbose description of the difficulties of keeping a weblog like this: the busier a person is, the less time he has to write, and the larger the pile of experiences to write about becomes. I have opted instead for the succinct description you have just read, which still has not prevented this from being my longest post to date. There’s tons to talk about, and… See more →

So a bunch of stuff happened in the last week.

Puppetmania on Monday turned out to be the best of the animated shorts program at this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, offering such gems as Jesse Rosensweet’s The Stone of Folly and Patrick Bouchard’s Brainwashers, both of which I missed at Ottawa last fall. On Friday night, the ultra-low budget kung-fu musical Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter entertained me far beyond my low expectations. On Saturday night,… See more →

Today I completed my first ever full-page magazine advertisement for a gay pornographic DVD. High five!

Interpol and The Raveonettes played the Troc last night. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the feedback-drenched Raveonettes, who sounded kind of like a garage-y Jesus & Mary Chain. I think I shall purchase their record. Interpol turned in another stoic performance devoid of spectacle, which is not to say I did not enjoy it. I admit my attention wandered at times (I often wondered, for example, how bored the superfluous keyboard player must be… See more →

I have accepted a job in the design department at TLA Video. After nearly fifteen months of unemployment, getting paid to get out of the house will be lovely. And since I got the offer while in the midst of—and will be starting immediately following—a short-notice freelance gig, my excess of free time has vanished very suddenly, forcing me to adjust on the fly. I think this will be a good thing too. Since my… See more →

The newest addition to the Projects section is entitled Snowfall; it’s a series of photos I took in the aftermath of last week’s blizzard.

Also, I have been spending a lot of time on Designologue, which is one of the best graphic design community sites I’ve come across. As stated on the site’s homepage, “A designologue is a conversation between two designers in the medium they understand best—design. Comparisons can be made to Coudal’s Photoshop… See more →

Busy, busy week. We have updated the BREDSTIK site for the first time in almost a year, with Flash goodies and more from Pete Dalkner, Matt Sutter, and the mysterious Stet Villchicko. If that weren’t enough, the collaborative site I have been referring to cryptically for the last few months is finally live. Since we couldn’t agree on what the site should be, we just split the screen four ways and everyone stays on their… See more →

I had a dream that Sebastian Bach (of Skid Row fame) moved in with my next door neighbors. In the dream, I was really excited to tell the world about it here on my web site, so out of respect for the “dream me,” I’ve decided to tell the world (or at least whoever reads this site) about it anyway. Here’s hoping that in subsequent dreams, Baz and I can belt out the classics together… See more →

Sonata for the Unaware, the new k10k issue by carbonatedjazz, is the best issue I’ve seen in a long time. There are three simultaneous video clips of public places in Philadelphia; the candid movements of the random people who appear in the clips generate varying bass notes, percussion, and tone frequencies. The 4MB download might scare off the dialup crowd, but it’s totally worth the wait.

Last night was an inspiring Ad Club lecture at York College given by Jim Sherraden, the disarmingly charismatic head of the notoriously lo-fi poster shop Hatch Show Print. They’ve been using not only the same technology to print posters for 100+ years, but also many of the same pieces of woodblock type, linoleum and woodcut illustrations and designs, and photolythographic plates, all lovingly stored in a monstrous archive in their Nashville headquarters. Even the archive’s … See more →

While I’m sure all (3) of my regular readers are enjoying my media critic pretensions, the About section does say something about the intentions of this site aimed at keeping people informed of what I’m up to creatively, so I think some relevant news is in order.

Lately most of my time has been been spent working on version 2 of the BREDSTIK Entertainment site, including a brand-new design and a bunch of new content.… See more →

You may or may not have noticed that I redesigned the site. Welcome to robweychert.com Version 2, lovingly dubbed “The Motörhead Version” by my friend Merritt. Version 1 has been permanently archived and will no longer be updated. As with that original version, I welcome any and all comments, suggestions, criticism, praise, and disparagement regarding content, functionality, and/or aesthetics.

To coincide with the Version 2 launch, I finally finished the Ireland project I’ve been talking… See more →

We finally got the pictures and video online from the Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash at Camp Naked Terror. The mini-DV wanted more light than we could give it, but the video doesn’t look too bad. Go check it out here.

This is a really neat idea: The 5K is a contest that challenges web designers to create a site with a combined filesize of no more than 5K. Oddly enough, it’s not the brainchild of Jakob Nielsen. I just wish I’d found out about it sooner, since the deadline for entries for this year’s contest is in two days…

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today I am learning how to use Corel KnockOut 1.5 (the new version is procreate KnockOut 2). It is my new favorite thing.

The Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash at our house this weekend was a huge, bloody success, so thanks to everyone that made it fun. We will be putting up a little site soon with pictures and video from the party; I’ll post a URL when it’s up.

Speaking of little sites, that micro-site with pictures and notes from my Ireland trip that I promised is still in the works and will actually be up very… See more →

A quick link before I’m off: my illustrator friend Jim Horwat launched his site today. He has a slick style all his own; go check it out.

I hadn’t been to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a year or so, so I went on Saturday. Primary points of interest were the massive Barnett Newman exhibition and Out of the Box: 20th Century Print Portfolios, including works by Man Ray, El Lissitzky, Andy Warhol and more. I was also happy to stumble upon a room I somehow never saw before, which was full of turn-of-the-century magazine covers (Harper’s, Lippincott’s, etc) by such… See more →

Should I go see Trouble Every Day on Thursday or should I go see The Locust? I don’t think I’ll have another chance to see Trouble Every Day in theaters in Philly, whereas The Locust will likely be coming around again within a year. Hmm. Tonight is A Chronicle of Corpses, which I’ve been looking forward to seeing for awhile now.

This past weekend I made some reasonable progress on the BREDSTIK redesign; it is… See more →

Last night was a fund-raising party at the Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park for the upcoming Version02 Festival (which I’m really sad I’m going to miss). Despite huge potential for overhipness, it was a genuinely great time, and I met a bunch of really nice people. I was also familiarized with the very slick SELECT zine.

Thanks to Kelly and her FluX Core pals for showing me a good time.

My friend and Grand Theft Auto 3 provider Kevin Cornell is currently the featured artist on Media Inspiration, where his true southwestern yearnings are revealed. He also squared off against Karen Ingram this afternoon in a rousing match of Photoshop Tennis.

My generous hosts and I got back a couple hours ago from seeing a gorgeous digitally remastered 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Music Box Theatre. Wow.

This afternoon I paid my inaugural visit to the inside of The Art Institute of Chicago (I took some fabulous photos of my sock monkey around the exterior last spring). Lots of cool stuff in there, including a number of Lautrec and Renoir paintings I’ve… See more →

For some reason, yesterday afternoon I decided I wanted to learn more about the history of Photoshop. After hunting around a bit, I found an interesting and detailed article on the subject, published in February 2000 by PEI Magazine. A PDF of the article can be found here, on the author’s site.

Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback so far via e-mail and message boards. There will be some minor changes made here and there in the coming weeks which will hopefully make the site a bit more easily and fluidly navigable. Feel free to continue the critique.

Also thanks to Kelly from No Cost for Culture for linking me up.

Welcome, friends, colleagues, and strangers. This is the eighth redesign of this web site and the first to go live. That said, if it were ever possible for me to look at the site objectively, that skill must certainly have escaped me sometime around redesign number four, so I invite comments, suggestions, criticism, praise and disparagement. Any and all feedback regarding content, functionality, and/or aesthetics is appreciated, be you a world-renowned furniture designer or an… See more →