“In a discussion with Scientific American Mind executive editor Mariette DiChristina, three noted experts on creativity, each with a very different perspective and background, reveal powerful ways to unleash your creat ive self.”
The Language of Graphics: The Lecture
“The invited lecturer, Yuri Engelhardt, started his speech by talking about the presence and importance of graphic representations throughout the history of the human been. Diagrams, maps, charts and many kind of symbols take part of our daily life. From clock faces to traffic signs or subway maps, or even those graphics that can be found in the neswspapers, they are everywhere around us. Computers deserve a special mention, where most information is transmitted to the user through graphic representation.”
Such Hubbub Over a Subway Map. Decades Later, Revisions.
“It was gorgeous. It was abstract. It was criticized. It was confusing. And it’s back.
With its 45- and 90-degree angles and one color per subway line, the 1972 subway map by Massimo Vignelli was divorced from the cityscape, devoid of street or neighborhood names. It was criticized because its water was not blue and its parks were not green. Paul Goldberger called it “a stunningly handsome abstraction” that “bears little relation to the city itself.”
Now Men’s Vogue has asked Mr. Vignelli to update his subway map for the May design issue.” (Thanks Information Design Watch!)
VizThink ‘08 Conference: Call for Sessions
“Planning for VizThink Europe ‘08 is well underway. The event will be held October 12 – 14 at the Crowne Plaza in Berlin, Germany. For future events, we’ve decided to open up the Call for Facilitators to the community. This is your chance to be one of the facilitators at an upcoming VizThink conference. Are you a visual thinker? Do you have experiences and expertise you’d like to share? Can you teach others new techniques and ideas? Then being a VizThink facilitator is for you!”
One Leg Leads to Another
“The human leg has evolved continually over many eons, adapting from an underwater propeller to its current form. But on book covers and on film and theater posters, the leg has evolved very little. In fact, the ‘A-Frame,’ a cutoff-torso-spread-leg framing device, is the most frequently copied trope ever used. From steamy paperbacks designed in the ’40s (Pamela’s Sweet Agony), hardly a year has gone by without at least one ham-fisted advertisement using this perspective.” (Thanks kottke.org!)
The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome
“In the vast majority of website projects that I have managed during my ten years in the industry, content is often the last thing to be considered (and almost always the last thing to be delivered). We’ll spend hours, weeks, even months, doing user scenarios, site maps, wireframes, designs, schemas, and specifications—but content? It’s a disrespected line item in a schedule: ‘final content delivered.’ It’s the perennial cause of delay and the stuff of myth (I once shelved a project for three years while the client ‘wrote’ his content.) It’s a malaise that needs fixing and needs fixing fast.”
TheDieline.com: The Leading Package Design Blog
“TheDieline.com defines good graphic design and product packaging in consumer products in industries such as food and drink, bath and beauty, alcohol, and more. Well designed packaging establishes consumers’ perception of the brand and the product. We showcase the best work out there from around the world.”
Chris Ware animation for This American Life
“Chris Ware has returned with another animated opening for THIS AMERICAN LIFE.”
10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment
“I pulled together a slidecast, with audio, of ’10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment.’ Bryan Mason and I gave this talk at SXSW 2008 Interactive. I’ve already described the talk here (we gave a version of it at Web 2.0 Expo SF in April) but the SXSW folks recently made the audio available.”
Follow the Rainbow: 101 Color Resources for Web Designers
“Do you freak out if someone asks you to match print colors to Web colors? Or, maybe you just can’t decide whether the orange would work better with the blue or the green. Either way, many designers may not realize how easy it is to choose a palette for that new Web design. Additionally, many designers might be surprised to learn that they can stay on top of color trends with a few visits to fashion design Web sites. All those tips and more are listed below in this list of 101 color resources for Web designers.”
