“The days of dull, grey concrete could be about to end. A Hungarian architect has combined the worldís most popular building material with optical fiber from Schott to create a new type of concrete that transmits light. A wall made of ‘LitraCon’ allegedly has the strength of traditional concrete but thanks to an embedded array of glass fibers can display a view of the outside world, such as the silhouette of a tree, for example.”

“The Architectís Newspaper is my new favorite design publication. Itís a 16-page tabloid that comes out about twice a month. Itís literate and timely, a fast-paced collection of news, reviews and opinion from voices as various as Michael Sorkin, Peter Slatin and Craig Konyk, all beautifully designed (in two ruthlessly efficient colors) by Martin Perrin. And, best of all, it has a gossip column. Last month, they published a piece by Michael McDonough, the accomplished New York-based architect, writer and teacher, called ‘The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School.’ I read lots of these kinds of things (and even written a few myself), but I found McDonoughís not just entertaining but actually quite useful, and valid for nearly any kind of design discipline. He has graciously given us permission to reprint it here at Design Observer.”

“Panic is a small, privately held software company in Portland, Oregon. Its employees are the makers of Unison, Transmit, Audion, Candybar, and other nifty programs for the Mac. Founded by Cabel Sasser and Steven Frank, Panic has attracted quite a following and has achieved success as a maker of software for the Mac. In fact, they might just be a case study in how to build a software company now that the bubble is long gone. To attempt to find out what makes Panic tick, I made the journey to its world headquarters (OK, so I walked five blocks from my apartment, but don’t tell my editor) and spoke with Steven and Cabel.” Thanks Andre

“Drawing requires a keen eye and a free hand, to recreate objects and people not as we see them, but as they are. An interview with artist, author, and publisher Dan Price, and a gallery of images from his journals.” Thanks City of Sound

“Mr. [Walter] Hood, who likes to call himself an ‘urbanist,’ is a pioneer in a new approach to landscape design in which streets, squares, plazas, playgrounds and parks are fused into a jaunty new urban form, one resonant of a site’s past.”

Very neat illustration of the human body in the style of a road map. Arteries and veins are major routes, the heart is a city, etc…

“Here we’ll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill policy-making, technical standards development and technological innovation that creates ó and will recreate ó†the networked world as we know it. Among the topics we’ll touch on: intellectual property conflicts, technical architecture and innovation, the evolution of copyright, private vs. public interests in Net policy-making, lobbying and the law, and more.”

“Steve Fine is looking at two pictures every second. He’s been keeping up that pace, with frequent short interruptions, for over four hours, and he’ll keep it up for three more. Four-megapixel JPEGs of football players, coaches, fans, entertainers, and certain assets belonging to Miss Janet Jackson go flashing across his computer screen in a dizzying sequence.”

“From ABE (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Pennsylvania) to ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland), airports around the world are universally known by a unique three-letter code: the ‘Location Identifier’ in aviation-speak. It’s obviously much easier for pilots, controllers, travel agents, frequent flyers, computers and baggage handlers to say and write ORD than the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois ó but how did this practice start, and why are some airport codes easy to understand (ABE and ZRH) while others seem to make absolutely no sense (ORD)?”

This is supposed to be an interesting show! Features work by Ted May, Andrew Robbins, Kevin Huizenga, Dan Zettwoch, Matt Kindt, Jeff Wilson and others. Artists’ reception: 6-8 p.m. March 19, 2004 at Forest Park Community College, 5600 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, Missouri. On display through March 26, 2004, at the Gallery of Art in the Library Building. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; noon-8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. Admission: Free. Information: 314/644-9350, 314/644-9231. Here’s a PDF map of the campus: fpmap.pdf.

“These are the speaking notes I used during the ‘Accessibility is for everyone!’ panel discussion at South by SouthWest earlier this week [March 2004]. I came here to be on this panel to tell y’all that I don’t care about accessibility. Don’t care. Not an issue. Hardly ever comes up. Here’s my big secret for you today. When you design for the Web ó that is, when you design exclusively and specifically for this medium ó when you do that natively, so many of the things we consider problems just start to fall away.”

“Formerly viewed as a marginal activity restricted to the technically savvy, blogging is slowly becoming more of a mainstream phenomenon on the Internet. Thanks to much media hype and some high profile blog sites, these online journals have captured the publicís imagination. As novice authors plunge into the thrilling world of blog publishing, they soon realize that publicly writing about oneís life and interests is not as simple as it might seem at first. As they become prolific writers, more bloggers find themselves having to deal with issues of privacy and liability. Accounts of bloggers either hurting friendsí feelings or losing jobs because of materials published on their sites are becoming more frequent.”

“World’s largest listing of newspapers on the web.”

“Exercises in Style was inspired by a work of the same name by the French writer Raymond Queneau. In that book, Queneau spun 99 variations out of a mundane, two-part text about two chance encounters with a mildly irritating character during the course of a day. He started by telling it in every conceivable tense, then by doing it in free verse and as a sonnet, as a telegram, in pig latin, as a series of exclamations, in an indifferent voice… you name it. The goal of this project is to apply the same principle to comics by creating as many variations as possible on a simple one-page non-story: different points of view, different genres, different formal games, and so on.”

“What are you tired of seeing? I’ve read threads on this site where people have said that’s ’so ’90s’ such as using drop-down menus. So what do people consider yesterday’s news when it comes to general site design/look? Are you tired of seeing fish-eye pictures of people from above? If so, what else?”