Project Headlines →

I love this idea: an ongoing daily/weekly project in which I design an 11×17 poster relating to a particular article I’ve read that day. Not really much more to it than that! Just an exercise to keep myself informed with current events, challenge myself with dealing with content and context visually…

I am extremely tempted to start something similar myself. I always make the excuse that I dont have enough time, but I am starting to repeat this to myself lately: life is short, stop making excuses and start making cool sh*t. 

Armitage from DTF

Armitage is a new typeface from DTF.

“Sturdy and humane, Armitage renders type with vintage American warmth. Even with a subtle sparkle Armitage stays humble to let words work.

Rather than build on recent trends, Armitage starts over, derived from designs of the late nineteenth century. Designer James Puckett cast a wide net for source material. Letters from sign manuals, inscriptions, period posters, and architecture inspired Armitage as they inspired the designers of the nineteenth century.”

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this typeface. Feel free to purchase as a gift (hint, hint)

Even if it is true that the average man seems most comfortable with the commonplace and familiar, it is equally true that catering to bad taset, which we so readily attribute to the average reader, merely perpetuates that mediocrity and denies the reader one of the most easily accessible means for aesthetic development and eventual enjoyment.

— Paul Rand Thoughts on Design

BRANDON GROTESQUE

Brandon Grotesque is a sans serif family of six weights plus matching italics, designed by Hannes von Döhren.

Influenced by the geometric-style sans serif faces that were popular during the 1920s and 30s, the fonts are based on geometric forms that have been optically corrected for better legibility. Brandon Grotesque has a functional look with a warm touch.

The Regular weight is free through April 15. (via Mr. Zedlman)

Normals →

I have been harping on this one lately and wish that it could be implanted into the brain of every designer, developer, startup founder and anyone else suffering from being part of the “technostocracy”

bobulate:

Spencer Fry on the definition of “normals:”

A Normal is maybe not an everyday person in every way, but has limited Internet knowledge. They certainly don’t read TechCrunch, they haven’t heard of RSS feeds, they probably don’t have a smart phone or at least don’t have many apps installed, and although they surf the Web a lot, they have little clue what a web browser really is. Another telltale sign is that instead of going directly to web pages, they use the search bar. You know these people if you’re reading this blog.

It’s more important to reach normals:

Normals make up far more than 99% of Internet users. If you fail to reach the masses then you’ll simply fail. You can be the hottest startup on the block with 100,000 active early adopters, but I’d trade every one of those users for Normals in all cases.

Focus on normals. So simple and often overlooked.

Frank Chimero has a blog.: Enthusiasm →

Well said: 

If you translate “enthusiasm” from its Greek origin, it means “to be filled with God.”

Being filled with God is a pretty ideal, state, huh? If you think about all the great philosophers talking about the supreme state of a person, and asking “What is the good life?” it seems to me that being…

Pretty much nails it. (via conradlisco)

Visual funnels →

Now to apply this to designing on the web…

bobulate:

All things that can be organized, will be:

At the shop where I work we just toss loose screws, bolts, nails and other bits and pieces of hardware from the workbenches and the floor into a bucket and, every couple of years when the bucket gets too full, somebody has to dump the whole mess out and sort everything back to where it belongs. When that job fell to me this Spring, I decided there had to be a better solution. So I designed a bin that would help to at least divide things by type to make the final sorting easier.

Because:

I wanted to make the openings as big a target as possible for those handfuls of hardware, so I made each wider at the top like a funnel. And I cut the shape of each as a visual reminder of what to put where. (This actually works really well — no thinking on the job required!)

Brilliant.

[via]

[Image: Self-sorting bin, built out of pine boards and 4mm plywood. via]

Oh man, this could be good. Nice move Tumblr, nice move.

staff:

Now testing: Pages

You can now add static pages to your blog, with a few very useful options. Head to your blog’s Customize page and click the “Pages” menu to get started. There are currently three types of Pages you can create:

• Standard Layout. Create a simple page with a title and body using your current theme.
• Custom Layout. Create a page with a completely separate layout.
• Redirect. Forward a route to a page on another domain. Useful for maintaining links when moving your domain name over to Tumblr.

Developers: Check out the Theme Docs for instructions on implementing the new {block:Pages} tag.

Wow. Just… wow. Going to dig into The Morning Benders a bit more in the days to come.

Just remember…

Just remember where you came from.

Just remember you, too, were once the “new guy.”

Just remember you don’t have all the answers.

Just remember communication erases confusion.

Just remember you are capable of more than you think.

Just remember there is always another way.

Just remember the sun will rise tomorrow.

Just remember your response matters.

Just remember a little goes a long way.

Just remember love is not earned nor deserved, it simply is.

Teehan+Lax's iPad GUI PSD →

I completely agree with Neven Mrgan here. Please pass this on!

mrgan:

I’m linking to this attempt at recreating the iPad UI as a warning, since you may see it linked other places; the warning is, don’t use this for any sort of production work. It was a lot of effort Teehan and Lax to put this together, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a sloppy effort.

Bevel and Emboss used for shadows. Objects not snapped to grid. Incorrect elements (the all-white selected icon in the tab bar). Plain made-up elements (the wide search bar).

This is perhaps helpful as a quick wireframing resource, but like their iPhone GUI document, it’s unacceptable for generating resources for your application.

Thoughts on the iPad

dkeithrobinson:

While at first I was pretty underwhelmed by iPad, loving the form factor but not all that impressed with the software. As the announcement went on though, I got more and more excited. About the prospect for game designers and content publishers primarily.

If this takes off, and at a $499 introductory price point, there is no reason why it shouldn’t, it could be a huge first step and a really big deal in the long run.

A few notes:

• The form factor is awesome (can’t wait to touch it!) and it seems pretty damn speedy.
• The name is pretty weak, but who really cares?
• The inclusion of a iPad-specific SDK and the ability to create apps that fit the form-factor will be huge. Games, magazines, newspapers, etc. are going to take advantage of this and it could very well be amazing.
• I’m really interested to see how the eReader works. If it reads well and I can get the books I want on it, I’d be all over that.
• The inclusion of a dockable keyboard replaces the need for the touch keyboard to be awesome and I can see many, many people out there using this as their primary machine. My mom, for example, should be all over this. Still, I’m really interested in checking out the keyboard.
• Love what they did with iWork. Keynote specifically, seems really smart.
• Really excited about the prospect of games on this thing.
• Where is the camera? Seems like it’s something that really should be part of this thing.

A few apps I want to see:

• Magazine and newspaper apps. I’d love to replace the paper. This will largely a design problem to do this right (and one, as a designer, I’d love to see solved, the mind boggles with the possibilities here) it could be really cool to have magazine subscriptions with high quality content, layouts, video, etc.
• Board game ports and supplements. The form factor means it could be really cool for multi-player games, either in-person and over the air. I could see a stand, sitting on a table keeping score, etc.
• A dashboard. I want to prop this up on my night stand and have it stream news, weather, time, etc.
• A fantasy football app. The iPhone apps work ok, but something with a richer interface could be really awesome.

Bottom-line: it’s exciting to think about the possibilities here and as a first gen device it’s looks to be pretty awesome.

The brick approach →

bobulate:

Unexpected wisdom from Will Smith talking with Charlie Rose on approaching tasks:

You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s every been built. You don’t start there. You say I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. …. You do that every single day, and soon you have a wall. (~23:00)

I’ve always liked Jeff Veen’s approach of starting from the bottom up in the The Art & Science of Web Design (and I’m paraphrasing liberally):

Start with the doorknob. Once you become a doorknob expert, you can move on to becoming a room expert, a door expert, a window expert. Make connections, and you can become an expert on how public spaces can foster community interaction, or how city design can alleviate congestion.

Wisdom in brick and doorknob format.

Ribbon Hero turns learning Office into a game →

I completely agree with Keith and will probably need to re-read this a few times to absorb all of the awesome in here.

dkeithrobinson:

I’d consider this a must read for all UX/UI designers interested in the use of game mechanics in their designs. Actually, it’s probably something anyone interested in UX or UI design should read.

Related: Ribbon Hero on CNET