Webdesigninformer.com

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

One of the best annual wrap-ups returns after a hiatus in 2009-10, Our Favorite Typefaces , from Typographica. Welcome back! The idea is simple: I invite a group of writers, educators, type makers and type users to look back at 2011 and pick the release that excited them most. … This is not a juried contest. The result isn’t necessarily the “best fonts of the year”, or even those most used or ballyhooed. But these 50 selections do capture a pretty accurate snapshot of where type design is now, and where it’s headed. And the results are spot on… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Gavin Rothery’s site is my new favorite blog. He’s the visual effects supervisor from the excellent 2009 film Moon , and he posts behind-the-scenes tales from his favorite sci-fi films and rundowns of other special effects designers, and all his posts include cast photos and conceptual artwork. So much to love here. Here are some recent favorites on Star Wars , Alien ( x2 ), and Blade Runner , but there is a wealth of good stuff in the archives. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

I’ve been following the announcements of the new Windows 8 UI (and particularly ‘Metro’) this week with great interest. I think they’ve done a fantastic job with Metro, it really looks like a fresh start UI wise. One detail stood out in particular. In the screenshots I noticed that they’ve adopted the Open Share Icon in their UI. To fill you in, the Open Share Icon came about after the original share icon was purchased by the company that provides the ShareThis service. While still licensed for public use, some people felt this wasn’t in the spirit of the thing, and decided to create a completely open version instead . … Read the rest here

Eric Meyer Go to the source

In the course of experimenting with some new artistic scripts to follow up “ Spinning the Web “, I ran across an interesting interaction between positioning and transforms. Put simply: as per the Introduction of the latest CSS 2D Transforms draft , a transformed element creates a containing block for all its positioned descendants. This occurs in the absence of any explicit positioning of the transformed element. Let’s walk through that. … Read the rest here

Mezzoblue Go to the source

I’ve decided to slap a Creative Commons license on the entire darn Chalkwork Family and make them completely free for personal use, starting right now. I’ve been considering doing this for quite a while. These icons represent a lot of hard work for me between 2006 and 2009, so you can imagine I’ve thought through the implications of making them available for free download without a pay barrier: will people use them commercially and not pay? Will they abuse the license terms? … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

In 1884 Thomas Marks opened his first market stall in Leeds. Over the next few years he opened 20 other stalls around the UK. In 1894, Thomas Spencer invested in the business and retail chain Marks & Spencer was born. From it’s humble beginnings M&S —as it was colloquially called—became one of the UK’ s biggest success stories and was the first retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion. Companies like WH Smith, Woolworth’s and AMSTRAD all started the same way, so it would seem that in order to make it big, you should start small. Can the same thing be said of the Web… Read the rest here

Mezzoblue Go to the source

If you’re not aware of it yet, HTML5 boilerplate is a fantastic starting point when creating a new site with its namesake markup language. But where Boilerplate focuses on basic document setup, external files, scripts, and bug fixes, it strikes me that it doesn’t do much hand-holding when it comes to basic document semantic patterns. As I’ve been working more and more HTML5 into my projects, I’m noticing a common template emerging. I’m sharing this as a minimum viable starting point since I’m still getting comfortable with the new semantics myself. Combined with Boilerplate, I’m feeling more and more confident that I’m beginning to use HTML5 properly. Don’t consider it canonical by any means, there’s likely a lot of room for improvement and it’s most certainly wrong in places… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

2009 charity: water Annual Report (PDF) : The financials

Cameron Moll Go to the source

An Introduction to Graphic Design : This article by William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand originally appeared in the December/January 2009 issue of Dwell . While not exhaustive or probably anything terribly new for many of us, it

Cameron Moll Go to the source

In just two short weeks I

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Changing the Default Audio Quality for Bluetooth Headphones on a Mac : So, I grew tired of dealing with wires when listening to music at my desk and purchased these Sony bluetooth headphones . It turns out, however, that OS X defaults to low-quality audio for bluetooth headsets and headphones. But that

Cameron Moll Go to the source

How to Design a Perfect Bathroom : This post comes from Mike Davidson, who built a stunning custom home in Seattle. He documented nearly every step (including expenses tallied in the sidebar) and shares what he learned along the way, such as this advice: The most important thing about shower controls is that they should not be placed underneath the showerhead. At least 90% of showers get this wrong, probably just out of builder convenience or laziness. You should be able to step into your shower, fiddle with your knobs, wait until the temperature is right, and then hop into the spray. Consider putting your controls as far away from the showerhead as possible… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Phaeton Typeface by Kevin Cornell and Randy Jones : The always-entertaining Kevin Cornell: If you

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Is CSS the New Photoshop? : John Nack, Photoshop

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Tuning Condensed Fonts with Typekit

Clagnut Go to the source

I’m extremely proud to say that two weeks ago Fontdeck opened its doors to the type-loving public. It’s been a long time in coming – too long I’d admit – but Fontdeck is now live and I’m hugely excited about what’s to come. To the uninitiated, Fontdeck is a webfont service, that is to say it hosts fonts licensed for use with @font-face font linking. This means is that web designers finally have an alternative to the standard web fonts of Georgia, Verdana, Arial et al, and can now safely choose from hundreds of fonts to use as real text on a website; no images, no Flash, no JavaScript required. Jon Tan and I had the idea for Fontdeck back in early 2009. Speaking together at a SkillSwap in Brighton, it transpired we shared the same notions on how webfonts might be delivered. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

The DODOcase, made by hand in San Francisco. As much as I love technology, my love for handcrafted goods probably exceeds it. To merge the two together is like bacon wrapped in bacon . The DODOcase for iPad is made by hand in San Francisco, California. It blends materials such as bamboo and fabric to create a Moleskine-inspired cover for your iPad, complete with elastic strap to keep the case closed. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Visual Designer Needed at Tandem Diabetes Care : Having a son with diabetes , I

Cameron Moll Go to the source

American Apparel Shares Sink to 52-Week Low : Oops. Advertising scheme not going as planned, AA? I

Cameron Moll Go to the source

After a return to freelancing , move across the country , adjusting to family life with diabetes , launching a major realign , and wrapping up a colossal poster project , I