“What photographers don’t need is another book about f-stops, shutter speeds and lighting schemes. They need a book that tells them how to think about what makes good photographs… ‘PhotoSynthesis’ discusses the practical application of the intuitive process to photography — evoking that process, believing in it, sharing the joy of it.”

“What’s the difference between a huge mass-market Internet success, and a niche tool favored only by a tiny techie minority? I learned part of the answer in a recent project I finished up a few months ago.”

A video clip from a 1993 CBC news broadcast talking about a new thing called “Internet.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

“I thought it might be vaguely interesting to go through the process of drawing a pixelly head like the ones I’ve been doing this week. It’s a process that is applicable to all pixel-style drawing: begin with the form and sketch out where the details go, then a trying things out until more and more bits come together.”

“The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum began the National Design Awards in 2000 to honor the best in American design… If design has an Oscar, the National Design Award is it. The honor is taken seriously… Because the Awards program was originally conceived as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the First Lady serves as the honorary chair of the gala at which the winners are celebrated. She also traditionally hosts a breakfast at the White House to which all the nominees and winners are invited. That breakfast was today. This year, however, five Communication Design honorees decided to decline the invitation. They wrote a letter to Laura Bush explaining why.”

“Last week I attended a reunion of people who used to work at a certain nonprofit literary organization. Some are in publishing now, many are writers, and all are bookish people who buy and read books–past page 18–regularly. Yet I was asked several times, while catching up with folks, what it is that a book interior designer does. ‘So, like, you pick the fonts?’”

“Harold Keables taught me how to write. He was my English high-school teacher in the early seventies (1970s, not 1870s). I wasn’t that great a student, so he’s probably having a good laugh in heaven watching me write books and blogs.”

“Our aim is to form a collection of the most amazing photographs ever captured. From the most tragic, the most memorable to the most spectacular moments in human history, we hope you can relive and appreciate the history of our world. Also, if you have any photographs that you feel are worth a thousand and one words, please submit it to us!”

“The era of the blockbuster is so over. The niche is now king, and the entertainment industry — from music to movies to TV — will never be the same.”

“InformationWeek interviewed five accidental entrepreneurs, including the founders of del.icio.us and Digg and the author of the blog Dooce, to find out how they freed themselves from the paycheck-to-paycheck grind.”

Although the phrase “Imagination Cubed” has no meaning, this online collaborative drawing tool from GE might be useful to you.

“I was talking recently to a friend who teaches at MIT. His field is hot now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be graduate students. ‘A lot of them seem smart,’ he said. ‘What I can’t tell is whether they have any kind of taste.’ Taste. You don’t hear that word much now. And yet we still need the underlying concept, whatever we call it. What my friend meant was that he wanted students who were not just good technicians, but who could use their technical knowledge to design beautiful things.”