October 30, 2008
Amount of space required to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus or bicycle. (Poster in city of Muenster Planning Office, August 2001)
My brother-in-law sent this to me. It’s a pretty powerful set of images. I can’t think of a more effective way to show the importance of considering public or pedal transportation. The Cycling Tips site posted the image on Australia’s National Ride To Work Day (a couple weeks ago). See the image a little bigger over there.
October 25, 2008
In his book Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design Michael Bierut wrote about David Carson’s book The End of Print which he summed up, along with Carson’s work, thus:
The end of print, the end of thinking: I’m not sure about the first, but the graphic design of David Carson has got me pretty convinced about the second.
Neither do I want to fall into designing per whim and without care.
Earlier this year I emailed someone to ask their opinion on whether it’d be worth it to join the Louisville Graphic Design Assocation. They wrote me back with this:
From what I have experienced with LGDA in the past it is pretty safe to say that it is a bullshit organization. My work paid for my membership for a year and I attended a handful of meetings but did not get much out of them. Networked a little, met some decent people, but overall it was really cliquey. Maybe they will put on a decent speaker this year again? Don’t join em’.
Then, just a couple months ago at Consuming Louisville, Michelle …
October 23, 2008
In the midst of scientific studies and standards in user-interface design, it’s nice to come across a website that seems to throw statistics to the wind, more concerned with (if we can use such basic terminology) ‘graphic design’ than ‘user experience design’ * — even if it’s not using the latest content management system, or the markup isn’t written as well as it ought to be.
(* There are definitely better terms for these. I realize, despite common usage, each of these terms can be applied to the design of a website or a printed work. For one who beholds a poster or a book is also a ‘user’ and ‘experiencing’ the final work, and ‘graphic design’ is certainly not determined by its destined medium. What design do we not ‘interface’ with?)
Here are two such examples that have inspired me and have me thinking a little differently about what’s so often the focus in the web industry.
The first from Chris Glass. I love his website. Love it. It’s designed from top to bottom. Each page is individually art directed. No boring template with content dumped in it. Sad how unusual this is, although there is …
October 22, 2008
I quit MySpace, Twitter, Google Analytics, LinkedIn. I haven’t quit Facebook (yet), but I just read an essay on Adbusters about doing just that, something a friend of ours did recently to our puzzlement and disappointment. Deep down, though, I really do understand and desire the same. For all the wonder and bringing-together that the social Internet has to offer — and I have definitely made positive use of it — I have found it too often being an inhibitor to real life. I want to read more books, but there is the Internet. I want to spend more time with real people, but there is the Internet. I want to ride my bike and build things with my hands, but there is the Internet.
I’m not giving up on the Internet, obviously. A majority of my work is here. It keeps me in touch with friends and family, and the design industry in which I take part. I can read about anything, quickly. But, I think we have some valid questions on the table about how much virtual time we spend ‘engaging’ one another.
Addendum: Truly, I love the Internet. And truly, it seems an oxymoron to write what I …
