Well, this raises the bar on all future wedding invites:

Wedding Invite Record Player

I'm dying to know the price per piece. Had to be outrageous.

But, how amazing is this? It actually plays! The song, not my taste, but it actually plays! Talk about creative thinking! This is truly inspiring.

Check out the designer Kelli Anderson's website too.  She's got some very interesting projects.  She displays more of this creativity under her "interactive paper" category.

As a kid who used to spend hours practicing, modifying and studying my handwriting, this article in the NY Times makes me just sad.

The Case for Cursive Writing

Richard S. Christen, a professor of education at the University of Portland in Oregon, said, practically, cursive can easily be replaced with printed handwriting or word processing. But he worries that students will lose an artistic skill.
“These kids are losing time where they create beauty every day,” Professor Christen said. “But it’s hard for me to make a practical argument for it. I’m not one who’s mourning it because of that; I’m mourning the beauty, the aesthetics.”

Me too, Mr. Christen, me too.

I saw this on Emily's blog this morning, and thought it was funny. I give her full credit for the find, but I just had to reblog it!

Good thing my husband didn't see this before we got married!

50 Reasons Not to Date a Graphic Designer


1. They are very weird people.
2. There are billions of them in the world, like colors on the screen of your computer.
3. They will analyse conversations in layers.
4. You will spend the day assembling furniture from IKEA.
5. They drink and eat all kinds of weird shit just because they like the packaging.
6. They hate each other.
7. You’ll come out the last out of the movies because you have to see the full list of credits.
8. They cant change a light bulb or without making a sketch.
9. They fuck up all the tables with their cutters.
10. They rather study the paisley pattern on your outfit than listen to what you have to say.
11. They will fill your house with magazines and whatever is out there that has drawings.
12. You never know if it is really an original or a copy.
13. They make collages with your photos.
14. They do not know how to add and subtract, they just understand letters.
15. They idolize people who nobody knows and speak of them as if they were his colleagues.
16. They take pictures almost daily and all are cut in weird shapes.
17. They ask your opinion about everything but they do whatever they want.
18. Everything is left justified, right or center unless they arrive late.
19. They hate Comic Sans with the same passion they love Helvetica.
20. They use iPhone for everything, because everyone has one.
21. You can not decorate the house without consulting them.
22. They steal street signs.
23. Always carry their hands painted with something.
24. They buy dolls unfinished for them to paint.
25. Everything becomes something other than what it really is: cards as tickets, cards as …
26. When arguing, you will be nicknamed like the OSX spinning wheel (not affectionately)
27. Do not know how to dress without consulting the Pantone book.
28. They hate Excel.
29. They read comics.
30. They want to save the world only with a poster.
31. You will spend the day brainstorming.
32. On vacation they will take you to countries that you do not know exist and have no beach.
33. Museums are their second home.
34. They know more positions than the Kamasutra.
35. They can’t go to a restaurant without secretly critiquing the menu design.
36. They listen to music you have never heard of.
37. They can´t cook a normal dish, they always have to experiment with new ingredients.
38. They read rare books: stories of children, Semiotics …
39. When you are going to tell you something, everyone has read it in their facebook and twitter.
40. They have own iPods before you knew they existed.
41. The orgasm they remember is when they heard that Adobe was acquiring Macromedia.
42. They have their own shops just for them and there are the most expensive in the city.
43. They want to spend all the money in the Apple Store.
44. You will never understand their gifts.
45. They see ordinary objects and laugh.
46. You wake up in the middle of the night hearim them screaming “When is the deadline?”
47. They see CMYK and RGB like Neo sees the Matrix.
48. They dream of the day nobody will make a single change to their designs.
49. They rather pay for a font than for a special birthday gift.
50. They are always sleepy because they work 24/7.

#5. I'm such a sucker for packaging!  19, 35, and 45 are particularly funny to me too. I don't hate excel, though (see previous post). But I do ABHOR Power Point.

I don't agree with all of them (I have a mathematics minor, think IKEA furniture is crap, and I don't hate everyone), though, but I can add some more:

51. They'll spend road trips in the car critiquing billboards along the highway.
52. They ABHOR Power Point.
53. They die a little inside everytime they see Comic Sans used for business purposes.
54. Their bookshelves are filled with design books that they love to look at and page through but never fully read.
55. They notice bad kerning wherever they go.
56. They could spend all day just picking out a font.
57. They get can get frustrated to the point of rage with someone who can't tell the subtle difference between shades of white (bone? ecru? yes, it matters!).
58. They love pens.

But maybe they just apply to me. : )

Interesting list of the 100 top brands in the world.

Surprisingly, 4 of them I've never heard of: 

#48 - Zara
#56 - AXA
#67 - Allianz
#68 - Santander

But they're international and financial services, so that might explain it.

Some I was surprised to find on the list:

#21- H&M
#37 - Goldman Sachs (hello!)
#71 - Kleenex
#83 - Pizza Hut
#87 - Nivea

And some I was surprised at the order:

Nokia (#5) is before Apple (#17)?  Really?
H&M (#21) is before Nike (#25)?

And the analysis is interesting. (Yes, I'm that much of a geek that I actually dropped this into Excel and did some pivot tables on it to check out trends. Go on, Mock Me.)

By Country of Origin:

Country of Origin	Total
Canada	2
Finland	1
France	8
Germany	10
Italy	3
Japan	6
Mexico	1
Netherlands	3
South Korea	2
Spain	2
Sweden	2
Switzerland	5
United Kingdom	5
United States	50
Grand Total	100

By Sector:

Sector	Total
Alcohol	7
Apparel	3
Automotive	11
Beverages	4
Business Services	5
Computer Software	2
Diversified	4
Electronics	13
Energy	1
Financial Services	14
FMCG	13
Home Furnishings	1
Internet Services	4
Luxury	7
Media	3
Restaurants	4
Sporting Goods	2
Tobacco	1
Transportation	1
Grand Total	100

Google and Apple had the biggest jump in brand value (36 and 37% respectively), while Harley Davidson was the biggest loser (-24%).

Yay Apple (yes, my fangirl is showing)!

Harley Davidson also had the biggest fall in ranking -25 spots from 73 last year to 98 this year.  But Google and Apple each only had a 3 spot rise.  The brand to move up the most, 14 spots from #81 to #67 is Allianz, the German financial company I hadn't heard.

Of the 10 newcomers to the list, 4 are Financial Services and 4 are Alcohol brands.  Hmm. What corrolary can we extrapolate in this shaky economy?  Or is it just coinky-dink?

So much interesting stuff. Well, at least to me it is! ; )

Remember how animated gifs are the bane of the internet-verse? 

I'll admit though, I've created one or two in my day.  Here's my little guy, back when he was a wee babe with his big ol' Charlie Brown head:

But these people, photographer Jamie Beck and motion graphics artist Kevin Burg have taken this early 90's web 1.0 abomination and have transformed it into something exquisitely beautiful.  They started out creating their "cinemagraphs" while covering Fashion Week in NYC.  In their words, according to fastcodesign.com, they "wanted to tell more of a story than a single still frame photograph but didn't want the high maintenance aspect of a video." Their cinemagraphs, which can take hours to make, are described by them as "something more than a photo but less than a video."

They are stunning.  Absolutely stunning.  They have collected a number of them on their tumblr blog.  I hope they continue to add more.  In case  you don't feel like clicking on the link, maybe a sample from their tumblr will entice you:

I love taking pictures.  One of my favorite things to do is focus on one point, and make the background all blurry.  I'm going to have examples of it on my gallery in my website.  Found out today that it is actually a named technique, called Bokeh.

50 Awe Inspiring Examples of Bokeh Photography

Guess I should give myself more credit when I think I'm just winging stuff.

Do kids today even know what an Etch-A-Sketch is??  Look it up, babes.  And I'm not talking about the fancy, new-fangled easy-to-create art upon Etch-A-Sketches they have now.  I'm talking old-school, back-in-the-day, not-for-the-coordination-impaired, two knob job.  The kind that it was impossible to make straight lines on or control.  Or, at least so I thought until I saw this today:

The Royal Couple a la Etch-A-Sketch

I know what you're thinking - another Wills and Kate post? But really, it is everywhere anymore.  It's not about that, it is about the incredible talent this dude has.  Check out his website:

Etch-A-Sketch Art

Amazing. 80 hours.  That's patience. And he started as a kid!  I know if I would have tried that crap as a kid, at least one or both of my brothers would have went out of their way to come along and hit my arm.  Or grab it and shake it on me. That's just the kind of little rat bastards they were. ; )

Something I wanted to do with my Webking page, but wasn't sure if it could be done.

Creating Drop Caps In CSS

© arminMarten

Taken in Budapest.  I never thought a bridge could be so lovely. This photo actually made me catch my breath.

Being a lover of type, I'm also really interested in Ambigrams.  For those who don't know, ambigrams are basically words that read the same when flipped upside down.  Here are some examples:

Sonali (name)

The Princess Bride (awesome movie!!!)

word illusion logo by Tiffany Harvey.  This one is outstanding because it is so easy to read.  Some designs are not as obvious.

The most famous ambigram artist being John Langdon of The DiVinci Code Angels and Demons fame.

This is a good article on how to make one.

Making an Ambigram

Ambigrams make you really examine the letterforms and think out the process. 

Did we go over this in class?  For some reason I can't remember.  End of semester brain fry.  Here is some css code for that (for the transparency, not the fried noggin):

CSS Image Transparency

I believe I'll be using #15 in my portfolio site:

Best jQuery Plugins for Image Galleries and Sliders

This makes me really really sad.  I weep for our future.

5 Unspoiled Locations That Are Actually Pretty Spoiled

Soda cans.....on the Titanic wreck??!?

Very cool.  At first, I thought "Meh" but once I started playing with it, it really is quite gorgeous.  A beautiful way of showing a portfolio.  I think the large beautiful photographs on the rollover are what makes the site.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

And this company has a local tie.  Apparently they did the PPL Center in downtown Allentown!

BTW, Michael Bierut is a famous graphic artist with Pentagram in NYC.

Saw this awesome gallery of creative 404 pages this morning.

Honestly, it's not something I ever thought about before. I always operated under the mindset of making sure my code is tight so that all of my links are correct, therefore the user will never see the 404 page. After looking through this gallery and reviewing the comments after, I definitely don't think that way anymore.

These people have the right idea. I especially liked the #35 comment from user "Mike":

"...it says a lot about attention to detail to see companies that design their own 404′s"

That really made me rethink my position.  As your site grows in size and complexity, I'm sure it is inevitable that a user will come up upon the dreaded 404. No one is perfect. Mistakes are made. So...I thought about the times when I've encountered a 404. When it was plain and generic, I felt like I had been dumped out of the site, kind of the equivalent of navigating through a voice-prompt phone system and being hung up without warning. Designing a 404 makes you feel as though you are still within the site, adding to the overall user experience. 

My question is - how do you specifiy the 404? Do you just make a page called 404.html and the site will just use that? Or is this something that has to be specified on the web server? I hope I remember to ask Ted in class.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites, in case you don't feel like going to the link above and/or reading the comments:

Grats! You broke it!

Monkey Butt

Horribly, Horribly Wrong

An interactive one!

Arrr...Treasure Be, Mateys

Ninjas!  And I love the bizarre poetry below it:

Homer!

Plankton! F is for fire that burns down the whole town, U is for uranium bombs... sing it with me!

Bad, bad widdle birdie!

PS.  See you soon LOL!

Possibly the best one.  Who doesn't love cute little ninjas reigning adorable terror?

I love the term "douche bag" (and "douch nozzle") but is it really wise to call your user that, when it is your fault as a coder?  I thought it was sort of insulting, and if anything should have at least shared douche baggery responsibility (ie.."Ooops, looks like we're douche bags!")

Another, but not as good, list from Smashing Magazine is here.

So my last post got me thinking about Google Doodles and how much I really do enjoy seeing a new one, as I use google everyday. Such a small thing really, but so much thought goes into them. Google has a page that has all of the doodles from 1998 to now.

Not surprisingly, my favorites have to do with artists:

Monet

Mucha

Van Gogh

Cezanne



Cassatt



Mondrian

Pollock


But I gotta give love for my Snoopy:

And the old-school gamer in me loves these:

Tetris

Pacman

These two are in the same idea, but clever nonetheless:

Morse Code

Braille

There are a couple of things you can notice when  you peruse the doodles.

1.  There are a lot of doodles with cutesy little cartoon animals
2.  People at google love the Olympics (which is a good thing)

Figure skating!!  Yay!

3.  As the popularity of the doodles has increased, so has the frequency of the doodles and the quality of the doodles. 


For example, here is the Halloween one from 1998:

Note: There is even pixelation around the pumpkins!

To these from 2009 on...

Anniversary of X-rays

Anniversary of Ice Cream Sundaes - love the retro look!

Agatha Christie



Loy Krathong - (Thailand)

 You can really tell there is a lot more design happening when these doodles are created now. Here's the history of the doodle.
Where do I apply to become "Chief Doodler"?! Doesn't that sound like the coolest job evahhh!? I'd love to write that in on my tax forms. Check out these lucky designers. Apparently, there is a fan logo page, but they're pretty gawd awful. Sounds like another personal project for me for the summer! How fun! Maybe I'll get my daughter to design one to submit for the K-12 contest next year.

So cool - in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Manned Space Flight.

But the best part is you have to rollover it with your mouse to get the rocket to launch. I refreshed the page over and over to get to see the little blastoff!

Here is my first crack at the design for the home page of my portfolio site.

I can't decide if I like it or not. I wanted it to be minimalist, to allow the curves and swirls of the typeface and side design to prevail, but now I think it is too boring. I have a feeling it will change before the site is done.

I'll post my site map tomorrow. Too tired now.

Speaking of my site...I don't know what the heck is going on with my site. I registered my domain with godaddy.com. Now I'm trying to get it transferred over to powweb.com, who I want to host my site. The transfer has been denied. Spent a large chunk of the night trying to figure that out. Still not sure. Go figure...I just put this domain/site on my senior show card. But I'm not freaking out. Noooooooo. Not me....

4/11/2011
UPDATE!

Here is my site map:

This is so true....

I still have nightmares that I can't get my locker open.

Disclaimer: I have no idea who the original artist is of this cartoon, as it was not me.  If by some weird coincidence the artist happens to read this, let me know and I'll credit  you.

<*Warning: This post not for Weak Guys or the Easily Queasy*>

 

I'm a girl who is a sucker for packaging. If it's wrapped in a pretty, well-designed box, I'll want to buy it. I love great design. Before today, I didn't think I had a limit. I was wrong. Allow me to introduce you to where design has jumped the shark:

 

Kotex Pad Design Contest

 

And I've heard tampons can now be bought in neon colors.  Really? Really??? Oh Good Lord Above, why???! Is this really necessary? This is something that we bleed all over, for God's sake. It is not something I want ANYONE to see. I don't even like seeing it myself. I have never found myself at that time of the month looking down and thinking, ya know what could use a little more color in my life? Yeah. That. What coordinates with clot red?

 

Unsuspecting Friend: Hey, Taba! I love that sweater you're wearing?
Taba: Oh, really? Thanks! It matches my tampon!

 

Apparently the peeps at Kotex have had that thought. And apparently it was too important to have one of the in-house designers have a crack at it, so they had to hire a famous costume designer, Patricia Field, who I had no idea even existed in the world until reading about this today.

 

But don't feel left out, fellow designers! You can design one too!!

 

Hey, Kotex et al, why not try putting all of that design $$ into the industrial design side of it? That's what I really care about. Form following function. Get a little Louis Sullivan action with your subject. There's a reason I don't buy your brand, and now that I suspect they'll be covered with the equivalent of a printed birthday party napkin, you're definitely not getting my biz.

 

And let's not forget, this is a medical product. Much in the same way I don't want my gauze at the emergency room to be saturated in inks and dyes, the same applies to these products. Would the ink rub off like a temporary tattoo?????! Gah!

 

I understand there is a whole movement of ladies out there who manufacture their own, using printed fabrics. I don't know why (being green, sustainable, blah blah blah, I used disposable diapers with my son too. Sue me.), but more power to them. I'd still be leary of the printed ones (hello sensitive skin!), but at least they're using actual fabric, not just slapping a stiff scratchy leftover from the kid's Dora the Explorer party around it (see printed birthday napkin above).

 

I couldn't help it though. I browsed through the entries. Wouldn't this one be like the equivalent in wrongness of burning the flag?

 

 

I don't know whether to be amused (if it was submitted as a tongue-in-cheek entry, as the name implies) or grossly offended (pun intended). I mean, if it is a serious entry, my relatives fought defending this flag, I have a good friend about to be shipped to Afghanistan, and some jackhole thinks this is a good idea?

 

This one is a combination of frightening (fangs...there?) and funny:

 

 

And, I did try my hand at designing my own.

 

This one is called either "Truth in Advertising" or "Ridin' the Crimson Tide":

 

 

This one is called "Slaughterhouse" (imagine it...ahem...afterwards):

 

 

Maybe I can get a bunch of these done up as a tie-in to my brand identity. What do you think? A leave-behind? ; )

 

 

Ya know, now I'm thinking of a new art exhibit. Gettin' all Jackson Pollock with my Auntie Flo. GROSS, right?! But I'm sure it has either

1. Been Done
2. About To Be Done
3. Is Coming Soon to a Gallery Near You.

I don't even want to google it. Only in America, indeed.

LOVE This! Though, not very practical. Exactly my conundrum with buying an iPad.

The Commodore 64 is Back, Bitches!!

The new Commodore 64 features genuine Cherry brand key switches, which provide a feel much better than the original, with a lovely IBM classic mechanism and click sound. The keys are the exact same shape as the original and are color matched. No expense has been spared. This is the ultimate hackers keyboard on which to wield your key-fu.

Key-fu. Awesome. Forget jewelry, this chick loves tech candy. ; )

There's another exhibit I'd be checking out tomorrow if I were going to NYC. It's called "icons & totems & pieces of the past" by the artist Moxie, and it is at gallery hanahou.  It is a collection of these really cool felted sculptures. 

I love this one, because Fisher Price's Little People (the real ones - not those supersized bastardizations they have out now) like "the bully" below were my absolute most favorite-ist toy as a kid:

Made out of felt!  Knitted!  That rocks my socks.

And this one is cool too:

I'm a child of the 80s.  What can I say?

I just love when an artist uses an unconventional medium in an unconventional way.  Check out more of Moxie's stuff at:

http://www.madebymoxie.com/

I also love the layout of the site, with each day's post being a picture.  That appeals to my visual nature.  Even though I can be looong winded in my posts, I'd actually just prefer to look at pretty pictures.  ; )

As designers we find ourselves sometimes getting so involved in the digital creation that sometimes we forget the origins of our craft. Well, I know I do.

This guy blends both worlds beautifully.  Ya gotta give props for his patience and dedication.

Incredible Paper Artwork by Julien Vallee

How amazing is this???

In my spare time (HA HA) I'd like to try something like this. After seeing this, I think it would be a great piece to add to a portfolio. Shows versatility of mediums. I have always loved crafting, but as a designer I almost feel ashamed of that. Like it is pseudo-design for the unwashed masses or something. I don't know why I should have to feel that way, because crafting, when done right, is a display of amazing skill and artistic accomplishment, as Mr. Vallee displays.  I know I read a design blog or comment by a designer somewhere that was down on crafters, equating them to people who use Microsoft PowerPoint and think they are designers. It has stuck with me, which hence is the origin of my private shame. Thank you, Mr. Vallee for reminding me I have nothing to be ashamed of! Unless, that is, I'm churning out crap like this.

Wish I was able to go to NY on Friday...I'll have to get there tout suite now!

Harry Potter Exhibition at Discovery Times Square

Harry Potter rocks!

They even have the scary clown jack-in-the-box boggart from my favorite movie of the series - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Ok, totally not design-related, but I found this article on today's NY Times website.  I was about half-way through before I realized this was the doctor I had in the emergency room at LV Muhlenberg on Thanksgiving Day.  I was there because I had critically low levels of blood platelets due to an illness and antibiotics.  She was so nice and caring.  She really set me at ease.  It was nice to have an emergency room doctor with a bedside manner too.

Dr. Kate Dewar