Live The Language: Paris
Live The Language: Paris : Je t’aime le type in this lovely video (part of a series ). … Read the rest here
Posts Tagged type
How to break into User Experience Design
One of the most common things I’m asked is how people can break into the field of user experience design. I’d love to be able to give a simple answer—like studying a particular course at University or starting as a UX apprentice and working your way up a series of clearly defined roles—but sadly that’s not the case. There are Masters degrees out there, but the good ones are few and far between. With current courses failing to meet demand, there’s no way the education system will be able to cope in the next two to three years once User Experience practice has becomes the norm. Even if you’re lucky enough to attend a good course, unless you had some level of prior experience, you’ll find it hard landing that first job… Read the rest here
Briefed, a WooThemes WordPress Template
These days it’s rare that I take on any client work — I have plenty of my own stuff to keep me unhealthily occupied. But WooThemes co-founder Mark Forrester and I have kicked around the idea of having me do a template for about two years, and I finally made time for it. It’s called Briefed , and I’m pleased as punch with how the WooThemes team turned my design into markup and templates. Naturally, as with almost any project, concessions had to be made, such as dropping from the demo the lovely Steelfish condensed typeface in favor an open source one. However, after purchasing the template, you can swap in your own typefaces (e.g. … Read the rest here
Project Peugeot
I mentioned a while back that while I’ve been enjoying the Globe for its comfortable, relaxed style, I’d been thinking of getting a proper road bike for weekend and sunny evening jaunts around the countryside. Not being able to justify the cost of a new bike just yet, and heavily inspired by Simon Clayson’s Peugeot 753 project , I spent a while watching items on ebay, looking for a suitable basis for a project bike. Ideally I was looking for something with a classic style frame with flat top tube that was rideable from the off without needing too much work. I knew that it would probably be something that would need a respray and work done further down the road, but it would allow me to find out if a road bike was ‘for me’, without spending too money up front. If it did work out, I could improve and upgrade it and spread the cost out over time, but if it didn’t, no big loss… Read the rest here
phiRatio
phiRatio : Also rad. A $0.99 iOS app that calculates different types of proportions — golden ratio, 4:3, 16:9 and 3:2. And it looks terrific, too. … Read the rest here
CSS Mask-Image & Text
CSS Mask-Image & Text : Here’s something I wasn’t aware of: Add a texture to HTML text using the CSS property mask-image and a transparent PNG. Currently works only in WebKit but degrades nicely for other browsers. Thanks, Trent. … Read the rest here
ATV Flash and Boxee 1.1
Two media-centre related things I’ve done recently: Jailbreak my Apple TV to install ATV Flash Black , and update my Boxee Box to v1.1. Heres a quick report of how it went: First the ATV : When the beta of ATV Flash Black was announced last December, I looked into and disregarded, the jailbreak process. Too much hassle if you had updated your ATV from the factory supplied version. Now, the process is straightforward with Firecore’s Season Pass app and a micro-usb cable. Likewise, installing ATV Black was easy when following the instructions, and I was able to add extras onto my Apple TV. … Read the rest here
Public Gothic
Public Gothic : Really liking this typeface, and really loving how they presented it using vintage metal oil cans. /via Mark Wyner … Read the rest here
The HTML5 Switch
The HTML5 Switch : Summary: There’s really no reason to postpone switching all your sites — big or small, existing or new — to the HTML5 doctype at a minimum . I support this argument and began doing this months ago. Read the full article for reasoning. … Read the rest here
Webfont Services Chart
Webfont Services Chart : A nice round-up of the current options for webfont hosts. I’d like to see Part 3: Type vendors that don’t host your fonts but sell fonts approved for webfont embedding, e.g. MyFonts . /via swissmiss … Read the rest here
Polygraph
Polygraph is a lively new typeface from PintassilgoPrints that’s just bursting with character. It’s inspired by polish artist Leszek Zebrowski’s poster work, but I see echoes of Rennie Mackintosh’s hand lettering style in here too. Whereas official Mackintosh typefaces (and my own amateur contribution Hill House ) are very clean and rigid, Polygraph carries the expression of artists hand really, really well. Packed with eccentric alternates, it is an all-caps font with four exchangeable variations for each letter. These alternates are programmed to cycle when the font is used in OpenType-savvy programs, creating a random effect on glyphs distribution. … Read the rest here
The Making of FunnyBugs.org
Funny Bugs is a non-profit endeavor our family has been working on over the past several months. We think kids with Type 1 diabetes deserve a fun, educational, and social experience for managing their diabetes and helping others do the same. We’re making plans to build that experience in our (very) limited spare time. Our 7-year-old son, a Type 1 diabetic, has been the chieftain of the project. Funny Bugs is literally a product of his imagination. … Read the rest here
The Mountain
The Mountain : I won’t even attempt to fumble with adjectives. Just watch. Terje Sorgjerd: A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes. Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. … Read the rest here
The Film Sessions: A Mixtape for Designers
Blake Allen , a man with impeccably good taste in music and the founder of Designers.MX, has just posted my mixtape: The Film Sessions, Volume One . I’m a film score nut. For a short time during college I was a music major with aspirations of becoming a composer for films. Obviously, I never made the cut, so I live out glory days gone by through collecting and arrange scores that others have composed. Sure, I enjoy indie rock as much as anyone else while working, but I also enjoy relaxing instrumental pieces as a soundtrack to my workday. … Read the rest here
Selling Design
As the managing director of a design agency, it’s my job to bring in the business. That means talking to prospective clients, writing proposals and running pitches. I’m lucky to work with some amazingly talented people and together we’ve developed a strong reputation in the industry. I’ve got a huge amount of faith in our team and really believe in what we can achieve. This makes meetings prospective clients for the first time really easy. I simply channel our passion and expertise in the hope that they’ll be convinced by our experience, buy into our vision and be infected by our love of good design. … Read the rest here
Griddle.it
Griddle.it : Like Placehold.it but for grid backgrounds. Add any dimensions after the griddle.it URL to get a background guide image in your site’s design, such as: griddle.it/[total width]-[number of columns]-[gutter size] /via Tiffany Wardle … Read the rest here
Practical wisdom
A few evenings ago I watched a really interesting TED talk by Barry Schwartz on practical wisdom . Although his examples were rooted in education and law, I couldn’t help but feel that practical wisdom was also the core of good design. After all, what is design except the ability to improvise novel solutions to new problems based on your knowledge of a set of rules and your ability to apply them with flexibility? The talk also made me think about my own personal feelings towards project management. I believe that project management processes are often used as a series of inflexible rules (or sticks) intended to ensure average teams reach a minimum level of performance. However this will have the opposite effect on good people, constricting them and eventually demotivating them. … Read the rest here
Vacant
Vacant : I like this stencil typeface by Mike Jarboe. A lot. I don’t know what I’d use it for, but then I’ve said that about a lot of things I ended up using. … Read the rest here
Announcing The Icon Handbook
Let’s get straight to it! I’m busy writing a book called “The Icon Handbook” to be published by Five Simple Steps , hopefully at the latter end of this year. It will be ‘application-agnostic’, looking at the process of creating icons for web as well as software. It will be a manual, reference guide and coffee table book in one. For the last 5 years I’ve been wanting to write this book – I keep looking around for other books of its type on the market, but never find any. … Read the rest here
Let’s Swap a Colosseo Print
Let’s Swap is place where artists and designers can swap art for free. I’m lucky enough to have my Colosseo print featured as this week’s swap. Here’s how it works: You submit something you’ve created — a poster, an illustration, a book — and if I like it, I’ll swap for one of my prints. Four 8” x 10” cropped prints and two 16” x 24” full-size prints are available for swapping. … Read the rest here