{Anything and nothing about everything I’m into}

Here’s what I am currently reading. I know it is a bit trendy to post a photo of a book stack, but I have yet to find an easier and better way. So here we go.

• Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
• The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
• The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
• ZAG by Marty Neumeier
• Special Assignments by Boris Akunin

I’m hoping to read a lot this summer, so I will post more soon. Stay tuned.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Uniqlo website and its creators. Their latest marketing tool is called UTLOOP, an audio-visual loop mixer. Here’s my loop.

My wife has quite a number of moles on her body, and I have always been amazed by the shapes of these little clusters of benign color cell growth. I wanted to share some of my favorite “constellations”. Continue reading →

I was listening to Grieg’s Ase’s Death from Peer Gynt Suite #1 when I stumbled upon these amazing photos from fisherman/photographer Corey Arnold. It was a beautiful experience looking at his fishing photos from Norway and Bering sea with this Norwegian classic playing in the background, almost as if these two pieces of artwork are actually meant to be experienced together. I believed once again, that nothing is a coincidence.

The site is designed by JD Hooge.

You gotta love Swiss design. What could be a better example of Swiss typography than these little goodies from Swiss Airlines? I really enjoyed the graphic design aspect of this flight.

I was driving north this weekend for a day trip when I came across this sled dog race in Tamworth, NH. I spent about half an hour watching the activities, and even though I enjoyed the race itself, seeing how the dogs were handled behind the scenes was a bit disheartening. Without further comments, below are some of my visual observations.

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Just wanted to share my reaction regarding John Maeda’s recent appointment as president of RISD. I believe we are witnessing a historical turning point in art and design. Not exactly in the form of an artifact as the catalyst – such as the Sistine’s ceiling, or Duchamp’s “Fountain” – or a memorable public act, such as Beuys’ “How to explain pictures to a dead hare”. But I think this agreement simply marks the beginning of a transition to a new, progressive era in creative thinking; the results of which we have yet to see. And John Maeda has the will, knowledge, experience, energy, and vision to see it through.

In his “Notes from a director’s laboratory”, Sergei Eisenstein once said:

The most important thing is to have the vision. The next is to grasp and hold it. In this there is no difference whether you are writing a film-script, pondering the plan of the production as a whole, or thinking out a solution for some particular detail.

You must see and feel what you are thinking about. You must see and grasp it. You must hold and fix it in your memory and senses.

And you must do it at once.

Good luck John Maeda. And godspeed.

I was in Boston a few days ago and took some photos on the streets. One of my resolutions for 2008 is to take more photos and post on the blog. So here we go…

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One evening a couple of weeks ago, I was glancing through the shelves at an A.C. Moore store when I came across some wooden cubes of various sizes in the craft department. They immediately reminded me of an article I read about 17-18 years ago in a science magazine, about a wooden puzzle. At the end of the article there were instructions to build one from scratch, but you needed a certain number of wood blocks, cut precisely into cubes. For years this little project had occupied a corner of my mind, without ever becoming a reality. But here I was, looking at these nicely cut pieces of wood, and I knew I was closer to building my own “Soma cube” than ever. Of course I didn’t even know that it’s called a Soma cube then. At least not until the next day. Continue reading →

Here is an interesting read by Bob Jacobson, an experience design consultant at Bluefire, and the editor of Information Design. Taken from his keynote at the 3rd International Conference on Information Design (ICID), Curitiba, Brazil, the speech focuses on the concept of “composing” memorable experiences. I think it is a very interesting approach to experience design:

I believe that inspired designing for experience is more akin to architecture and musical composition than it is to conventional design. The variables one must deal with are vast and unknowable in their entirety: the audience’s cultural and experiential legacy, individuals’ past personal histories and experiences, the interplay among design elements and the audience’s interaction with them, the conditions in which experiences are to be had, heuristic filters (how people perceive and evaluate conditions), and so forth.

Full transcript.

I heard MIT is suing architect Frank Gehry’s firm, alleging design flaws in the Stata Center in Cambridge, MA. I haven’t seen the actual facility yet, and I will definitely stop by the next time I go down to Boston, but from what I have seen in the photos, it is a typical Gehry structure, and looking at its unconventionally angled walls one can easily see how its design might lead to some drainage problems and leaks. I’ll stop here without further comments. This post is supposed to be about my interpretation of the cliché phrase “thinking outside the box”. Continue reading →

Recently there have been some heated discussions (1, 2, 3) in the online design community about the similarities between Apple’s product line and Braun’s product designs from the 60’s. Instead of adding more to the controversy, I would like to take a moment here and concentrate on Braun’s design aesthetic from those years, which is still impressive by today’s standards. During an era that is known for its stylistic trends and visual icons (space age, plastic/fiberglass bubbles, Sgt. Pepper, op-art, psychedelic forms, etc.) Braun approached product design from a purely functional angle, and focused on core design principles, such as innovation, endurance, honesty, usability, and consistency, that resulted in great products with timeless design. Continue reading →

I think I’m becoming a big fan of Marian Bantjes. This little project on her website is an excellent example of her refreshing approach to typography. Very inspiring.

I just saw this 30 second short by Bück and I am impressed by the simple, yet effective visuals. Own your C is a youth tobacco prevention media campaign seeks to help teens make the connection that their choices define who they are and who they will become, kind of similar to another youth campaign: “Above the Influence”. What I like here is the conceptual take on the story, and the allegorical treatment.

The whole piece is simply an art direction tour de force, tastefully done and quite understated. Every second is embellished with elements that support the fairy tale style, from the color palette to the typeface selection for the tagline at the end. Visual references such as the “tree tunnel” at the beginning, luminous windows in the middle of darkness, and the planting of the “c” in the forest all relate to the entangled inner psyche of a youngster, surrounded by a hostile world outside. Upon second view you notice some subtler support elements around the main character: the cuddling sapling, bentwood furniture, the pattern on the comforter, and who knows what else. Amazing…

The only thing that bothers me about the campaign is the name itself. “Own your C” doesn’t really mean anything if you don’t know that C means Choice. And is it not risky to use that letter, since it could also stand for the word cigarette? Maybe it is intentional? Beyond me.

You can watch the animation on Bück’s website.

If you have seen 300, or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, then you know what I am talking about when I say CG sets: real actors shot against green screen and composited over 3D backgrounds in post-production. Both examples above were simply amazing—technically and visually—and they made me ask the typical “what are they going to do next?” question. But until I heard about this next example, all I could think was that “next” would be something like more seamless integration of live action footage and CG backgrounds, or better acting in front of green screen. Continue reading →