“The purpose of American posters has always been to grab the individual and the collective consciousness and demand attention and action. Whatever the message — from urgent appeals to patriotism to voices raised in protest, from pleas for environmentalism to seductive suggestions urging us to buy jeans — the poster reflects the explosion of ideas in the twentieth century, both intellectual and visual.”

“Information Architecture For Designers is low on theory, high on practice. It contains practical examples, how-to’s, do’s and don’ts and ready-to-use templates, illustrating concepts, tools and deliverables that can be used immediately in real-life by anyone responsible for designing web sites. Practical explanations and tips are illustrated with case studies from industry leaders like IBM and Microsoft, and clear explanations of the latest cutting-edge research from the academic world.”

“All this thing does is create a random number and slap it into a filename that has the structure used by default in a few different digital cameras.” It then returns the results via Google. (Warning: You never know what kind of photos people have posted to the Web. Some may be offensive or not safe for work.)

“On October 8, 2000, I wrote about a TV ad for autotrader.com, which utilized a visual metaphor for search that I felt was necessary to help most searchers to really understand how search works. Well, now someone has made that a reality. Iokio.biz is in the business of providing visualization tools for sifting through data.”

“In Make it Bigger, [Paula] Scher candidly reveals her thoughts on design practice, drawing on her own experiences as one of the leading designers in the United States, and possibly the most famous female graphic designer in the world. Pointed and funny, it is an instructive guide for all those who navigate the difficult path between clients, employees, corporate structures, artists, and design professionals. Make it Bigger provides a survey of Scher’s groundbreaking work…”

“I discovered a way of colouring the natural numbers that I have found very fascinating. I use following eight colours: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white. It started years ago when I realised that those numbers that can be expressed as the sum of just two squares (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13 etc.) contain all their multiplication products (e.g., 2×5=10)…”

“In Make it Bigger, [Paula] Scher candidly reveals her thoughts on design practice, drawing on her own experiences as one of the leading designers in the United States, and possibly the most famous female graphic designer in the world. Pointed and funny, it is an instructive guide for all those who navigate the difficult path between clients, employees, corporate structures, artists, and design professionals. Make it Bigger provides a survey of Scher’s groundbreaking work…”

“There’s nothing nicer than a tune playing in your head — until you can’t turn it off. The phenomenon has spanned the ages. In 1882, Mark Twain wrote in a short story of an annoying ‘jingling rhyme’ that became indelibly lodged in the author’s mind until he passed the curse along to another hapless victim.”

“A decade after their chart success, Jesus Jones are a hit on the corporate gig circuit. Frontman Mike Edwards explains why cashing in isn’t selling out.”

“Some professions are easier to label than others. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, firemen, plumbers — these people can name their job easily at a cocktail party. Somehow ‘user experience practitioner’ doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily. Hence the inevitable effort for UX-types to name what it is they do: at conferences and in newsletters, for years, I’ve seen the endless discussions. Should it be ‘usability professional?’ ‘Information designer?’ ‘Interaction architect?’ Some other permutation? Here’s my proposal — easy to pronounce, easy to understand, just two easy words: ‘Who cares?’”

“Selling To the VP of No” is the new book by XPLANE founder Dave Gray. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a manager or a salesperson in the trenches, this visual learning book is for you. View sample pages and order online

“Discoverability is often defined as the ability for a user of a design to locate something that they need, in order to complete a certain task. It’s common to hear programmers and designers utter the phrase ‘that won’t be discoverable,’ while pointing to a specific command or link they believe users will fail to find. The trap, and the myth, of discoverability is that in any design, not everything can be discoverable. There are two flavors of the myth: the core myth, and it’s corollary.”

“It’s easy for an organization to put up a few Web sites. It’s quite another feat, as Eliot Phillips makes clear, to ensure that they are brand-building, coherent, compelling, up-to-date, and easy to use. He offers a framework, criteria, and design options for building an effective multi-site Web presence, and amplifies critical issues with an in-depth case study.”

“The authors of this article, both principals for Method Integrated Marketing, a branding and communications firm, begin with the observation that ‘the number-one complaint we hear with respect to major branding initiatives is their inability to effect real cultural change.’ Part of the solution, they feel, lies with internal communication. Indeed, a recent study cited by Faust and Bethge found a significant link between the transparency and visibility of internal communication and employees’ overall feelings about the company.”

“Bringing you the best of bygone eras. I’ve been an admirer of all things with a retro feeling for a few years. Nowadays it’s something that’s being revived in many areas such as design, music, fashion and so on.”