“Mad Men” Furniture: Don Draper’s Office : A very detailed review of the show’s mid-century style from none other than The Mid-Century Modernist. I’ve not seen a single episode of “Mad Men”, but I’ve read/seen/digested enough tweets or posts to have seen at least two seasons worth. At least. … Read the rest here
I’m probably way behind the curve on this one, but I recently realized the following: All browsers that support the CSS text-shadow and box-shadow properties also support the new CSS3 RGBa syntax. Which means you can safely combine them today. That’s handy, because it means no worrying about matching a precise hex colour shadow to a specific hex colour background. Instead just let the browser blend. An example: p { text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0 1px 0; } That will produce a paragraph with a 20% opacity black drop shadow that will blend into any background colour below it. … Read the rest here
Kiva High School : A new effort by Kiva that enables high school students to organize themselves in microfinance clubs with the intent of educating others. I’m a big believer in microfinance, and since March 2008, Authentic Jobs has funded 222 loans by donating 1% of its total monthly revenue. … Read the rest here
“It’s Like a Love Letter to Dieter Rams.” : John Gruber’s exhaustive review of iPhone 4. … Read the rest here
Hello, Craig. : Yes, hello. Good to see you’re finally offering prints for purchase, Craig. Fantastic work. (Craig is an animal on Dribbble and a previous contest winner .) … Read the rest here
Keynote Wireframe Toolkit : Wireframing with Keynote is a reasonable pitch—it’s affordable, rapid, and uploading to iWork.com makes annotating and collaboration easy. (I’m currently sharing concepts with a client via Keynote slides posted to iWork.com, though the original screens were created in Photoshop.) This toolkit by Travis Isaacs contains many of the essential elements for prototyping an app, including 960-based grids, standard banner ad sizes, and click/tap/swipe/pinch indicators for those reviewing the prototypes. /via Mark Wyner … Read the rest here
Villagers debut album “Becoming a Jackal’ has been my most played album in June. Here’s the the single ‘Ship of Promises’, with a suitably hippy video to go with it. The packaging has great artwork too… … Read the rest here
Bounce : The lightweight version of ZURB’s Notable app. Both allow you to capture websites and share feedback on them. Speaking of jobs (previous post), ZURB is seeking an Interaction Designer for its San Jose offices. Relocation assistance offered. Help create killer stuff just like this. … Read the rest here
Using iPad On Set : Vincent Laforet, the creative mind behind Reverie , mentions several ways he’s found use for iPad during a film shoot. There’s a brief video included in the article, too. He closes with an opinion I can agree with, even though I’ve been on a “real” set only twice in my life: I’d like to challenge Apple and other software/hardware companies to FULLY take advantage of the iPad. I’d love to be able to use it as a reference monitor for any of the cameras that I’m shooting with. I’d also like to see and grade the footage that I am shooting—LIVE. … Read the rest here
Moleskine® Kindle Cover, iPad Reportedly Coming Soon : Suede lining and blank ivory paper for jotting notes. Available on Amazon , though the reviews aren’t all that positive so far (mostly dealing with right-handed vs. left-handed users). Core77 says an iPad version is reportedly in the works. If, however, it has bands covering the corners, I won’t go for it… Read the rest here
Seth Godin: Goodbye to the Office : Seth compares factories from the industrial age to corporate offices today, and draws this conclusion: If we were starting this whole office thing today, it’s inconceivable we’d pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get. I think in ten years the TV show ‘the Office’ will be seen as a quaint antique. When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like. Although the factory vs. … Read the rest here
Google Checkout Nightmare and the $126,000 Phone Call : “prbuckley”, whose profile mentions being the owner of DODOcase (see my review ), explains he’s due $126,000 from payments via Google Checkout. But Google isn’t handing over the money, and their customer service is just as reserved. The discussion that follows in the comments is worth reading for business owners in a similar scenario, that of having far more orders than you can fulfill in a timely manner. I’ve run into the same issue with my letterpress posters before, and resolving customer service issues can be trying. Thankfully, I’ve had fantastic customers, and by now I’m much better at preventing delays from happening. … Read the rest here
IDSGN’s Monthly Review, vol. IV : Love the layout of these, not to mention the content they springboard over to. See also vol. I , vol. II , and vol. III . … Read the rest here
Coda Notes, a Safari Extension : It’s not available to the public yet, but the idea seems promising: When you install Coda Notes, you’ll get a new button in your toolbar. Click it to see all our annotation tools, built right into Safari. Draw some notes on your favorite website. Communicate changes, ideas, concepts, or problems. Then, when you’re done, hit the Send Notes button and the whole page flips over as a postcard. /via Daring Fireball … Read the rest here
While I agree with Neven Mrgan’s Walled Gardens , I feel like the whole imagery of walled gardens is a bit of a metaphorical stretch—not because it’s inaccurate, but because it’s fundamentally unnecessary. We don’t need metaphors here. That’s because the iTunes App Store is just what its name states: it is a store. That has a fairly specific and intentional meaning in the world of commerce. It means that the stock is not infinite and that someone has screened it. … Read the rest here
Redesign vs. Realign : Cameron Chapman offers updated commentary on my original article , published almost 5 years ago. In particular, I can endorse this recommendation, politician-advert-style: As far as exactly when a client should realign their site, the answer is as often as necessary. It should become a regular habit to review what’s working on their site and what isn’t, and to make adjustments as necessary. If goals aren’t being met, continuous tweaks to the functions, structure, content, and design of the site can move your clients closer to them… Read the rest here
ESPN 2010 FIFA for iPhone : Just 10 days until the first game. ESPN’s app is a fairly solid experience for tracking scores, news, schedules, and the like. The New York Times reviewed several other apps , some of which also run on BlackBerry and Android. What’s interesting to me is that for the FIFA 2006 World Cup, SMS and the mobile web were the primary means of following scores and updates. In 2010, nearly all of us with something other than a Nokia will probably track the same with an app. … Read the rest here
Wired on iPad: Just like a Paper Tiger : Oliver Reichenstein’s review of the Wired iPad app is anything but positive. Concluding with a quote from Adobe that “the future of magazines is now” comes Oliver’s closing remarks: No, it’s not. The future is never now. And the future of journalism is definitely not a stack of banners spiced with videos, exported from a paper layout program. You need to try harder. … Read the rest here
Ethan Marcotte’s latest article for A List Apart is a MUST READ for anyone making websites. I’d dabbled with media queries for flexible layouts on this site previously, but removed it because I’d overcomplicated it. This is such an inspiring read I’ve got the motivation to get it it done properly now… Comment on this … Read the rest here
Evans G Plus Coated Drumheads : I’ve been a Remo Clear Pinstripe guy most of the time I’ve been drumming, but last Christmas I asked for the Evans G Plus coated heads after reading some positive reviews. I finally got around to installing them this past weekend. So far, so good. They seem to have more volume and a warmer tone than the Pinstripes. And for tuning your drums, it may be difficult to find a more thorough guide than Scott Johnson’s Drum Tuning Bible . Although I didn’t follow his process exactly for tuning my heads, there’s plenty I learned reading through the entire guide… Read the rest here
