“A while back, when I posted my profile of Dave Bamundo as part of my illustrator series, Art Talks, Edel suggested I do a series about art directors. I thought it was a great idea and would be a terrific way to learn more about the people who hire us and collaborate with us and figure so large in our world. So this is the first in my new series of art director profiles, of Steven Heller, who critiqued my portfolio back in the early ’90s and subsequently hired me for the Book Review.”

Peter Merholz: :Jess McMullin, of nForm, will present Smoothing the Way: Designer as Facilitator on Day 1 of UX Week 2007. I spoke with him to better understand his approach to facilitation.”

“A little while ago we showed you 11 of the Great Color Legends and why they exist… and now we’re back with 13 more great color legends… Green Cards, Blue Balls, Highlighter Yellow, Ferrari Red & more. Be sure to let us know if there is a great color legend you’d like us to cover in a future edition.”

I’m going to be offline for a week or so. xBlog will return shortly after 16 July. In the meantime, check out these fine folks with online publications: Coudal Partners, Conscientious, Drawn!, information aesthetics and Signal vs. Noise.

That’s right, XPLANE is hiring!

“Under the guidance of experienced practitioners from Adaptive Path and other top companies, this four-day conference introduces user experience practitioners to new rich internet application design approaches, practical prototyping techniques, effective cross-organization communications strategies and more.”

“To my mind Graphis Diagrams has to be one of the seminal publications on diagrams. Less acedemic than Tufte, this book showcases a wealth of styles from the crazy to the intensely Swiss. Here are some of my favourite parts.” (Thanks Noah Brier!)

“Public Design Center, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in January of 2007 with the mission of providing design-studio production for groups and projects which focus on economic development and sustainability in underserved communities.

We provide print and web production for projects in impoverished areas with emphasis on rural issues, urban planning, bio, wind and solar energy, economic development, organic farming, energy conservation, microfinance, and sustainable building.”

“Megan Jaegerman produced some of the best news graphics ever while working at The New York Times from 1990 to 1998. Her work is smart, finely detailed, elegant, witty, inventive, informative. A fierce researcher and reporter, she writes gracefully and precisely. Megan has the soul of a news reporter, who happens to use graphs, tables, and illustrations–as well as words–to explain the news. Her best work is the best work in news graphics.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

A big ol’ photo album filled with nice biz card design over at Daily Poetics.

“We’ve put together a list of the most significant film techniques that were used by Alfred Hitchcock. This information comes out of many books and interviews from the man himself and his been simplified for your consideration.”