xBlog: The visual thinking weblog
31st March 2006

Variations on a Theme: New York’s High

“Every week, the editors of New York magazine identify five upcoming ‘can’t miss’ activities in the magazine’s back-of-the-book listings section. And every week, New York’s design director, Luke Hayman, and art director, Chris Dixon, select a designer to create ‘High Priority,’ a typographic illustration using these five selections.”

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31st March 2006

Designers must write

“Early in my career, I was involved in a strange and completely unnecessary rivalry with one of my coworkers. She and I were like oil and water. After years of chilly interaction we actually managed to engage in something that had the semblance of a civil conversation. During this chat, she somewhat reluctantly noted that she held no drawing skills. To state it candidly, I was aghast. How could a professional not have a handle on what I perceived as the absolute basics? Even that early on, I knew that design was about more than getting funky glasses and flipping through type magazines — It had everything to do with the idea. How could you effectively explore or begin to develop an idea without first scratching down some thumbnails and messing about?”

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31st March 2006

The Search For A Domain Name

“You’ve thought up a brilliant idea for a new Web 2.0, AJAX-enabled web app, or you’re about to release a thus-far-unnamed killer software app. Now you just need to find the perfect domain name for it to live at (and, in true new-economy fashion, you’ll base your corporate name upon whatever available domain name you find… PILLAGEANDPLUNDR Corporation). You pull up GoDaddy and start punching in clever names, along with their many variations, only to find that they’re all seemingly taken. ‘This can’t be!’ you cry. ‘Has every possibility already been registered?’”

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