Ja! That's Art

MTA FIX

2011-05-05T22:44:00.005-04:00

Looks like I won't have to pull out the black electrical tape for some DIY design fixin'. The MTA finally nixed the superfluous list numbers!

Maybe it's just that I take the 2 and 3 trains quite a bit, but those numbered numbers were really bothersome.

HOT SOCKS

2011-04-30T22:09:00.003-04:00

An innovative package design by Jackson Dickie for... socks. The minimal white cardboard tag lets the texture and color of the sock stand out. Silver rivets lend weight to the brand with a vintage-modern feel. Beautiful.

ICEBERG AHEAD!

2011-04-25T08:43:00.005-04:00

Giant inflatable iceberg (14' high with 102 handholds)

This is design thinking.

Taking a Problem: Fun way to enjoy the water in your backyard (if you live in Florida).
Innovating: "Something that doesn't belong, that involves exercise, that is fun, that provides a view, and that doesn't look ugly."
Good Design: Clean texture, Crisp white

MTA FAIL... AGAIN

2011-03-10T21:05:00.003-05:00

Well it looks like the MTA has finally caught up to 1988. They are currently installing digital signs that indicate when the next trains will arrive.

Problem #1: The extra "1." before the actual train number (1) is unnecessary. It is superfluous since the list is so short that we do not need numbering. Plus it is visually confusing to have the numbering next to trains that themselves are numbered.

Problem #2: The LED dot matrix display is up to date... in 1988. The point of using the flip-dot display is to use on large (no) outdoor (no) signs that usually will be exposed to direct sunlight (no).

Problem #3: Sometimes they are wrong.

HELPING OUT

2011-03-10T13:04:00.005-05:00

A man in need of financial assistance put a bit of marketing magic into asking for donations. He slipped into a Starbucks and as he walked by the tables he discreetly placed a pen onto each table where people were sitting. Attached to the pen was a small slip of paper that said something to the effect of: These pens are for my family. I am deaf and would appreciate $1.00 or $2.00 for this item. He walked back to collect back the pens and any donations people were willing to provide.

Benefits of this idea:
1. Does not disturb Starbucks patrons or staff
2. Gives each person a minute to think about donating
3. Provides a product—a pen—that someone sitting at a Starbucks may actually need

INFORMATION DESIGN FINDS PROFITS

2011-02-22T10:58:00.006-05:00

Finally a way to make money from information design. A big problem in the field has been financing since the private sector has largely ignored the value of data visualizations. But now a company called Column Five Media has injected PR into the mix so as to position information design as an asset since it comes with press and guaranteed brand impressions. So now companies like TurboTax are using good design as a way of advertising by giving consumers valuable information. Pretty fucking smart.

MTA CHUTZPAH

2011-02-09T20:49:00.003-05:00

Copy: "Instead of developing transit apps ourselves, we gave our info to the people who do it best."

Now if only they would lend some of that improvement to the G train. It would be easy because every single thing about that train needs help.

GOTTA GETTA GATE

2011-01-21T23:18:00.005-05:00

From Blue Ant Studio

Even if you don't have babies. The design of this gate is spectacular. There is something especially appealing about the tranquility of the repeated horizontal lines. Perhaps the appeal stems from the pleasure of knowing there is something so serene and harmonious to be found in the realm of loud, messy babies. It is also a reminder that sometimes it doesn't take very much to get away from bad design.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2011-01-21T23:14:00.002-05:00

DEEP THOUGHT

2011-01-05T18:50:00.002-05:00

ANOTHER CEO GOT BORED

2011-01-05T17:44:00.004-05:00

Well. It is usually the case that bringing simplification to a company's visual identity is a good thing. The new Starbucks logo might be the exception.

Of all the Starbucks logos above the nicest is the first one on the far left. It is in an earthy coffee brown color in a friendly, imprecise, stamp-style print with a unique image (nude sea nymph/siren) that communicates authenticity and a tie to soil. But alas, this is too authentic for what is now a 16,858-store chain. So let's go with the next best thing. Give it a slick, solid type treatment for the brand name with a slick, solid icon. The most recent version did just that and so settled in to a strong brand positioning in our commercial landscape.

Uh-oh. The CEO got bored. The company now wishes to "expand their business" and so nixed the name in lieu of what Starbucks executives are probably now mistakenly lauding as a cleaner, modern, and more visually-appealing design. Wrong.

The nymph alone doesn't communicate a "starbuck." This new design vaguely references the sea (Starbucks originated in Seattle and the name refers to a character in Moby Dick). And it references previous iterations of itself. Not the product. I don't see any beans, steam, cups etc.

Final verdict: the new logo is too pared down. And they're going to need to write their name out on something at some point.

TECH PORN: TIES THAT BOND

2011-01-04T19:07:00.006-05:00

installation, Riflemaker Gallery (April 2007)

A humorous art piece by John Maeda. From what seems to resemble something of a love knot, we can infer some kind of union created by two white Apple ipods. They are connected to something by one wire cord that vanishes into the wall. The juxtaposition is such that the tilt and downward position of the ipod on the right resembles something of a nuzzle. Alternatively, the tilt could be seen as an aggressive ram, which would be underscored by the screen images that reflect a jostling.

Since Maeda is a scientist-artist, let's go ahead and make some geeky interpretations. An initial reaction to the above observation is seeing the two as people. Even when objects do not look like people, we can find it easy to imagine what types of human characters they could have. A couple. Male and female. One interpretation is labeling the sex of each ipod as male and female using a genetic, chromosomal lens where XX is female and XY is male. Hmm. Now mathematically, the x-axis of a graph is horizontal and the y-axis is vertical. Since the ipod on the left has many vertically-oriented bars of color we could deem this male (linking to the Y in XY). Or, more simply, the vertical lines of the left ipod could signify height and the horizontal lines of the right ipod could then refer to width. Biologically, men are taller than women and women are "wider" through their curves.

Through this deliberate arrangement, Maeda could have implored viewers to personify the technological devices. By doing so we see ourselves in the technology. It is an extension of the self. A viewer of this exhibit literally sees him or herself in the screen's reflection. Could Maeda be probing the observation of the loyal, unshakable attachment people have with their personal technology devices (PDAs, mobile phones, smartphones, ipods, etc.)? Mere plastic and metal. A lifeless 4.7 ounces.

MINIMALISM VS SIMPLICITY

2010-12-22T10:49:00.006-05:00

There is a tendency for designers to embrace minimalism. Or at least they happily claim to do so. However, the reality is that what turns them on is not minimalism; it is simplicity. There is a difference. Minimalism—spinning into everyday culture through its origin in the 1950s as an art movement—is about starting from nothing and having less so as to keep things to a bare minimum. It leans toward an extreme. Simplicity, on the other hand, possesses a greater degree of humanity by reducing things while still maintaining ideal functionality. For example: imagine a modern kitchen. The minimalist kitchen started from zero and adds in perhaps a few juice glasses on a recessed shelf along with maybe five pots and pans hanging on the wall. There is a single sponge, but no soap. That's it. We all know that we need many things for a kitchen to function such as a coffee maker, dish soap, toaster, napkins, paper towels, etc. But do we go ahead and put the blender, smoothie glasses, and an ice bucket on the counter? No. We keep it simple by finding a happy medium. In the images above a designer has applied minimalism to package design. The corn flakes become very generic and is stripped of a juicy image of the product, which factors into consumer purchase decisions. The Nutella, on the other hand, can live with this minimalism because the product itself is visible through the glass jar. One problem with all of this is that removing color and personality from the logos detracts from the brand identity.

Something minimalism lacks that simplicity has is the art of arrangement. Being simple requires the ability to arrange with purpose and perception. There is a whole book on the subject called Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement.

DON'T TELL ME THEY ACTUALLY LEGISLATED

2010-12-18T21:20:00.007-05:00

Detail of map

The New York Times did a nice job with the information design of the graphics showing how the Senate voted to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. There was an emphasis on clarity here, as the details were kept to a minimum and the graphics were boiled down to bare minimum. For example, the designer used the typical red and blue colors to indicate party. But s/he did so in such as way so as to keep those colors, using slight modifications, to indicate three different data sets: Yes, No, and Didn't vote. It was smart to group the "No" and "Didn't vote" groups vis-a-vis desaturated color. I do wonder, however, if the map would be an even easier read if the "No" squares had the diagonal lines in the fully saturated color. Or... perhaps the designer intentionally made the "No" squares desaturated in the same tones as "Didn't vote" so as to make the viewer optically group those together, leaving the "Yes" squares to stand out since they're the only saturated colors. This then creates an emphasis on the "Yes", which is to say the passage of the vote. It is subtle, but this designer manipulated information to propagate the "Yes" (it's about damn time!) vote.

I think that in the future, several generations from now, when we see maps like these, we'll absorb them in one whole visual gulp without needing to put together the parts to make sense of a whole. These graphics do a really good job of hastening that gap closure.

PLANK TREE AND MENORAH

2010-12-13T16:54:00.006-05:00

Wood & Wool Wooden Plank Trees (apprx. 45 cm high)

In the vast world of Christmas decoration there is a fine line between tasteful and tacky. Get your design on by hanging a representation of a tree on your wall. How wonderfully simple and rustic. And a good example of appropriation.

And... a simple, rustic menorah to match.

YORK NEW KNICKS

2010-11-24T17:58:00.006-05:00

Top: current version; Bottom: Editor's suggestion

The York New Knicks got a new logo. Yay? There have been conflicting uses of the new logo. There is currently a subway ad campaign that features the logo in desaturated colors (closer to the bottom, edited version here, but much lighter). And there is the web presence that gives us blaring blue and orange (top). Sure, sports is, well, sports and so having robust colors imparts feelings of action and intensity, which works for a basketball team. But this comes at the price of a horrendous blue and orange combination. Perhaps the color discrepancy is an indication of this conflict: wanting a non-hideous logo, but at the same not not a dull, lifeless logo. Another problem is that the vertical balance is off because of the negative space surrounding the Y, which is the price of having the N and K balance each other out. Since the Y is so prominent, it screams above "New" and "Knicks." But on the hand it gives an emphasis to a crowd chant and is in linear order.

BLUE AND ORANGE

2010-11-24T17:56:00.002-05:00

Boo.

SIR PENGUIN, ESQ

2010-11-18T15:04:00.003-05:00

A textural delight! It's not often that you see penguin ornaments let alone penguins dressed in plaid menswear. The use of red for the accessories unifies the group through color.

CANDY COLOR

2010-11-02T14:21:00.006-04:00

Jonathan Lewis created these prints using the color palettes of candy packaging as his inspiration. They are delightful in their simplicity as the viewer has that "ah-ha" moment of recognition. It seems as though he got the color proportions correct based on the amount of color in each package. Reminds me of Adobe's Kuhler color themes (see below).

BLUE AND ORANGE

2010-11-02T13:56:00.002-04:00

Not so happy about this.

ELECTION DAY

2010-11-02T13:07:00.010-04:00

Current design

CREATIVITY IS KEY

2010-10-26T10:22:00.004-04:00

In the world of in-store bulletin boards, a creative execution really stands out. Such as this ad we reviewed last year. Here, the piano tuner exploits the product's appearance by visually linking it to the take-away in a mostly successful ad. Additionally, leaving out names lets the company name do the talking, which gives it credibility and legitimacy in a media space where anyone could tape up a flyer. The typeface party on the other hand...

DOES AND DOES NOT SUCK

2010-10-20T14:01:00.003-04:00

Paper drinking straws! When purchased in bulk they are just 2¢ each. The benefit for retailers using these is two-fold: 1. being environmentally responsible and 2. letting customers know your company is environmentally responsible. The latter results in a very positive association with your brand.

__________________

2010-10-13T21:52:00.006-04:00

Better late than never. Axing Arial is always a good idea. One day it will join BrushScript, Mistral, and Papyrus in the heavens.

The new MySpace logo is a success and failure. What do we see here? No color. Two letters and a horizontal bracket (in balanced alignment). No .com. No icons. Just a visual pun.

The clarity and simplicity is surprising to see in light of the cluttered and complicated design of their current web site (which will also be redesigned by the end of the year). Eliminating the clutter and tightening up the interface was probably high up on the design brief. As was differentiating itself from Facebook, which also uses a blue color palette. Check and check. There is also an interactive element that has the potential to be amusing. (Screen shots here.) The interactivity seems to be akin to some of the Google Doodles.

Let's consider a bigger question. What does this new logo stand for and how does it affect the MySpace brand identity? Over the past several years MySpace has been sinking as Facebook innovated and implemented design thinking. But we're getting to a point where the social networks can diverge. Facebook is an expanded rolodex that enables people to communicate and learn about their contacts' lives. It started by being restrictive to college students with .edu email addresses and still remains a "closed" network. MySpace began as an "open" network—a wild west of sorts. Anything went: fake profiles, spam, porn, bad html. You could search for and "friend" (verb) anyone. But it got too big and unwieldy. The layout of the web site became cluttered and confusing with very intrusive banner ads. MySpace turned to garbage. But then they ramped up efforts in the music artists section, which gave up-and-coming musicians a platform to showcase their work. Now that's different. MySpace can survive by realizing what it isn't (Facebook) and working what it is... a way for people to discover new media: musicians, comedians, and filmmakers. These are people you do not have to personally know in order to connect with interactively.

Returning to the logo design, it seems more like an advertising and promotional tool than a brand identity. For example, the MySpace business card with the logo enables employees to draw in their own personal doodles for customization. The brand identity conveyed by the logo, however, speaks to the vast openness and "anything goes" attitude that makes MySpace stand for any thing. Such a position is too broad and generic. Its home page looks like Yahoo! or any other token entertainment web portal. Not having a color palette fits with their [insert here] brand positioning, but at the same time it sacrifices distinction.

The simplicity of logo design is a big step forward, though, and MySpace is coming into an identity independent of an interpersonal social network model like that of Facebook.

A NEW WAY TO LEARN ABOUT THE BEATLES

2010-10-11T14:41:00.006-04:00

A good example of statistical information sourcing. Despite its trivial content the image is creative and fun. Information Design is not reliant exclusively on quantitative data.

THE NEW BOOK

2010-09-23T15:17:00.004-04:00

Building a community by the book. By IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm. Crazy hyper-future land. Prepare for head explosion.

(This video has great art direction, especially with the use of color as organization tool. Yellow, Turquoise Blue, Red.)

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

LIVING BUILDINGS

2010-09-23T13:31:00.006-04:00

OpenBuildings' header imagery is charming in its simplicity. Their mission is to aggregate and organize great examples of architecture across the world by using crowdsourcing. Orange is a lively, fresh, and energetic color that fits with the dynamicism and creation inherent in building. The curved line feels like a heart monitor, which brings the design the association of life and vitality. The rounded corners help the design feel friendly and the buildings found therein are as simple as possible while still in possession of individual characteristics such as columns or round, left-justified windows.

NEW TOC-ING

2010-09-08T13:51:00.004-04:00

Who says a table of contents has to be a list of topics in order of appearance? Sometimes this is not useful to an author's book. Perhaps writers should take a stab at information design and come up with alternate ways of presenting their information concisely. David McCandless supplants a traditional table of contents in his data visualization book, The Visual Miscellaneum, with headings drawn to prominence by use of scale (big), shape (circles naturally attract the eye), and color (basic coding technique). He creates a deservingly simple two-level organization with the type of graph as the first (Pop, Health, etc.) and the location or page number as the second, deeper level.

FILM PROMOS... 60s STYLE

2010-09-04T20:03:00.013-04:00

A great film deserves a great promotion. Even in 1964.

Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie is a complex psychological drama about a beautiful compulsive liar and thief (Tippi Hedren) who helps herself to her various employers' safes and vaults before changing her address and identity. One of her bosses (Sean Connery) falls for her and uncovers the truth behind her actions, but takes her as his wife rather than sending her to jail as he gets at the root psychological trauma. It has been said that Marnie is like a culmination of Notorious (1946), Rebecca (1940), and Spellbound (1945). Its cinematic triumph is the use of framing and its exquisite color palette.

The film was introduced to audiences with a bang in July of 1964. In the lead up to the release, there was a contest with the theme of "Who is the Prettiest Secretary," which surely grabbed female audiences. Then at the actual opening night select movie theaters displayed a large safe that was filled with merchandise from neighborhood retailers (jewelry, clothing, gift certificates, etc.). Moviegoers were invited to take their shot at cracking the safe, for if they succeeded the contents would be theirs.

An assortment of movie posters were created billing it as Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspenseful Sex Mystery" with headlines like the below. In the image above, the list begins and ends with the most powerful selling points: sex and love. Additionally, the borders are designed in a modern 1960s style, which again sells it to a younger, more culturally immersed audience that doesn't want their mother's same old romantic movie.

Selection of poster headlines:

"On Marnie's wedding night he discovered every secret about her... except one!"
= Allowing the viewer's mind to wander to interesting places to figure it out, creating expectations they want to know will or will not be met in the actual film

"Thief...Liar...Cheat...she was all of these...and he knew it!"
= Painting a character will ill traits and adding second level of intrigue with a "he"

"Only Alfred Hitchcock could have created a woman —so mysterious —so fascinating —so dangerous as Marnie"
= Banking on Hitchcock's directorial star power as well as setting up intrigue for a character

"Alfred Hitchcock's love stories start where others fail to go!"
= Banking of Hitchcock's directorial star power and asserting success via the negative "fail"

THEY SEE THE SAME STYLIST

2010-09-03T21:49:00.005-04:00

These two men have something in common besides a big bottle of peroxide: Christianity. Or, perhaps more correctly, religion as a means of maintaining power and a position in the far right wing. Bill Keller (left) is a salesman turned insider trader turned jailbird turned television evangelist. And Geert Wilders (right) is a Dutch Freedom and Democracy party politician turned Group Wilders politician turned "Freedom" party politician. Both men fuel their existence by attacking Islam and advocating for things like banning the Qur'an and taxing Burqua-clad women while they peddle the Islam-as-religion-of-hate-and-death bigotry.

Keller and Wilders both sport bleach-blond hair, which is a curious similarity given the above. They each strive for pure whiteness of the follicle and subsequently go to great lengths to achieve such "purity." Of course both are on television and are in the public eye so image is everything. They want to stand out. But why blond? Perhaps the extreme brightness and lightness on their crowns helps them better piggyback onto the God connection. And pumping up the volume on their hair is a gesture meant to reach up to get them even closer to the heavens. Pure. Clean. White. Light. Right. Divine. The world is mine.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2010-09-03T00:02:00.001-04:00

DEEP THOUGHT

2010-08-24T15:59:00.001-04:00

Data is the new (s)oil.

GLASS OVER PLASTIC

2010-08-24T15:28:00.007-04:00

The amber glass for this special espresso blend hearkens back to the days of the general store and local apothecary. A vintage, homespun vibe goes along with Stumptown's brand ethos and really makes this product stand out, although without compromising the image of their usual brown paper packaging. It is also rare to see coffee beans in anything other than bags so the glass was a nice touch. Part of me wishes that this was pushed a bit more so that there was a different style of lid with texture or even laser engraving in the glass (like the example below).

MEMETIC CARTOGRAPHY

2010-08-19T22:28:00.009-04:00

"Memetic Cartography" - concept mapping as evolutionary strategy; developed from the ideas of Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins; a meme--like a gene--is an idea, belief, or pattern of behavior that is "hosted" on one or more individual minds which can then reproduce itself from mind to mind.

Conceptual framework for online identity roles by Venessa Miemis that shows how individuals interact with information online. She breaks the roles down into idea shapers, observers and scribes. This is a great example of how design is an important skill for information age data processing. Human brains are slowly having to adjust to interpreting data like never before: infinite quantity, organization, and synthesis. Welcome to the future.

p.s. check out those icons... so simple, clean, and direct!

DEAR HOARDERS,

2010-08-10T17:18:00.003-04:00

Have a dinner party.

Sincerely,
Ja

INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION

2010-08-05T23:15:00.004-04:00

Information design example

Simplicity of digital design for the tram cars in Amsterdam. Just the bare essentials. In equal weight for visual unity.

ANOTHER CEO GOT BORED

2010-08-05T22:41:00.005-04:00

The package re-design for Ciao Bella gelato is rather saddening. The previous design stood for something with its unique stark, simple packages that communicated by color and type. This new design seems to say, "Hey guys, look, I'm a real ice cream! Just like you! Look at my pretty photos!" While the category is a crowded one, there are not many deliberately Italian brands. The gelato found in Europe is really quite good and different from the ice cream in the U.S. To give that away for a visually crowded, origin-generic design is a resignation and a big part of the brand equity has been scooped away. Too close to Edy's and too far from Talenti.

DUTCH DESIGN: CUCKOO CLOCK

2010-08-05T21:24:00.005-04:00

Human beings have always loved little birds popping out of boxes to remind us of the time. Automaton bird clocks came into fruition in the middle ages, but they gained steam in the early 18th century in the Black Forest in Germany. In the mid-19th century, expert woodcarvers created chalet-style casings with rich ornamentation carved three-dimensionally. This type of cuckoo clock--derived originally from the "Jagdstuck" design--has been popular since the mid-19th century and traditionally features hunting motifs such as deer heads, leaves, pine cones, guns, and oak foliage. The cuckoo clock has been a loved piece of kitsch for centuries.

The above cuckoo clock is a modern one in the style of the traditional clocks that was spotted in Dutch design heaven, The Frozen Fountain. Even though we want to reduce our surroundings for clean interior design as modernity almost mandates, we still want this kitschy decoration on the wall. With digital timekeeping, wall clocks are becoming irrelevant for time and relevant to interior design. The design of this clock has been stripped down so that as few details as possible are presented: wood, hunting motives, and the cuckoo bird.

The cuckoo is, of course, the most interesting part. Sound and spectacle. Why do we love to have a part come alive to remind us of the time?

DEEP THOUGHT

2010-07-11T05:11:00.002-04:00

By Do-Ho Suh, whose work is marked by defiance of scale and space

BROOKLYN DESIGN

2010-06-09T12:30:00.007-04:00

This is what I see when I amble around in my 'hood. Gotta love Brooklyn.

FIRE IT UP (SUMMER EDITION)

2010-06-06T19:20:00.005-04:00

Irongear Sculpture

Innovation of the outdoor kind: a stylized gas fire pit fabricated from raw steel with handmade details such as peeling bark, pine cones, leaves, and twigs. Since it is handcrafted, this item takes on a sculptural quality to nearly pass as a work of art. The exaggerated vertical arrangement and inclusion of details such as twigs and leaves makes this a very unique piece that emphasizes the ferociousness of the flame. But it is not too ferocious -- the flame is not from the wild strike of a match or the breath of a hot ember, but the controlled flip of a gas switch.

BOYLAN'S BIRCH BEER

2010-05-31T12:38:00.003-04:00

Boylan's Birch Beer is the original drink developed by the Boylan soda company back in 1891. Their sales increased during the silly prohibition era, as the company decided to package their soda in unused beer bottles. Now, in a time where so many companies change their visual and/or packaging identities every few years when the CEO gets bored, Boylan's still uses the design inspired by their original bottles. No paper labels here. Just two colors and glass molding. The result is a solid brand that has a permanent seat in your mind as the vintage soda.

BLUE AND ORANGE

2010-05-01T20:26:00.001-04:00

Double the disdain since it's the BP oil spill.

GET OFF THE PHONE

2010-04-27T20:04:00.005-04:00

Copy: "Don't talk while he drives"

This print ad for the Bangalore Traffic Police created by the Mudra Group in India is a refreshing new angle on the effect that the product/problem has on its participants. A public awareness ad could communicate a common formula like: "if you talk on the phone while driving, this bad thing will happen to you." Or, as this ad does, it could communicate: "if you talk on the phone while driving, this bad thing will happen to the person you're talking to." We are reminded that car accidents resulting from distracted drivers are not just the fault of the driver.

The concept is good because it is unexpected. However, the art direction could use more work in composition and staging. The desaturated tones of the image allow the red blood to stand out, but the blood itself could use an increased level of gore by being a bit heavier and thicker, maybe even with some clots, since it looks like thin paint as it is now. Compositionally, the diagonals of the blood line, the arm, and the side of the woman's body effectively guide the eye from the focal point of the phone. The only problem is that the woman seems distorted from the angle of her head, as the hairline is uneven and is shaped to make the head appear elongated. It is really is quite annoying once you notice it. Also, her expression could use a touch of disgust. Check out this other execution in the same campaign.

ME-OWWW

2010-04-25T23:44:00.009-04:00

Since the cat (or "dog") doesn't actually purchase a bed for itself, it could be argued that pet owners project certain fantasies or idealizations onto the bed they buy for their pets. What could their therapists wrestle out of these owners' subconsciousness?

Top Row, Left to Right
• "You're not really a cat. More of a cat fish. I love taking embarrassing photos of you to make myself seem comedic."
• "Scurry into the glory hole like a good kitty!"
• "I refuse to buy any furniture that is not featured in Dwell magazine."

Middle Row, Left to Right
• "Form always trumps function. Now we have matching beds!"
• "I stole this from MoMA."
• "Well you seem to have no trouble jumping up ten feet to sit atop the refrigerator."

Bottom Row, Left to Right
• "If you run away I could use this as a shoe brush."
• "Tee pees are so underrated."
• "My flatbed scanner is now officially your bed."

YEE HAW, MOTHERFUCKER

2010-04-17T21:47:00.011-04:00

The Western is the most enduring and most successful Hollywood genre in history. John Wayne. Robert Redford. The Williamsburg Hipster. The cowboy represents the desired image of America by embodying a specific set of traits.

Independence
Autonomy
Ownership
Strength
Virility
Protection

But the cowboy is not unique to America. It evolved out of the medieval English knight. Our cowboy -- that we have constructed and shaped to our needs since the turn of the 19th century -- is an archetype that furthers a dominant ideology. What these figures do is provide a central icon around which to establish an identity as a nation. The cowboy offers a myth that seems to substantiate the ideology behind it, which is certainly capitalist. At the turn of the 19th century America needed to cultivate an idealized self-image characterized by the individual, self-reliant, transient qualities of the western hero in order to further capitalism as the dominant ideology. The myth prevails and masks the violence of the West, class and racial unrest in America, and capitalism’s control over American culture.

Cowboy boots. So damn American. We wear them as aspirational participants in the myth in considering ourselves to be strong, independent people. And maybe we like seeing them because at some level we like to feel that we have a strong, independent leader to take ownership of us and protect us against the evils in our lives.

MOTIVATIONAL POSTER

2010-04-17T18:27:00.010-04:00

We all have seen motivational posters (especially if you watch The Office) with self-help adages. They're blatant pieces of propaganda designed to propagate action for the self within a specific environment. We are supposed to be encouraged by an image. On one hand it is the satisfying recognition of the power of art and design. But on the other hand it is a forced way of manipulating ourselves vis-à-vis a visual substitution for a voice above us. Perhaps we should consider who is telling us to conceive, believe and achieve. The wall? The designer? Your boss? Your company? Your god? Your superego?

Or is it all a subconsciously accepted sham and therefore really just a pretty poster on the wall? So the better looking, the more motivating (i.e. the image above). Since we intellectually know it is a poster designed to motivate us, do we nod in acceptance and focus back on our present task? Or do we use it to justify our slacking?

Conceive, believe, and achieve. The design of the image above is decadently polished with the simple but strong color palette of medium blue, steel gray, black and white. Blue. It is one of the most popular colors for design, especially for banks and law firms. Psychologically, it conveys trust, which makes sense in the context of motivation. Visually, the blue in the design above is a particular shade of blue that does not saturate the eye's cones, but rather softly eases in to sit comfortably with the white and light silver. There are many hues of blue out there, however most blues we encounter are of the common medium-navy, ocean blue type (such as that of Blogger, the New York Knicks, NYPD -- the kind that looks atrocious when paired with orange). One theory on the pervasiveness of this particular blue is that it is close to the Crayola crayon blue that we all encounter in our first decade of life and therefore somehow feels "right."

The custom typography is that of a solid sans serif letter form with lines of equal weight; it is reminiscent of French enamel signs from the 1930s. The type has the feel of retro medicine drugstore bottle meets galactic space invaders, which are two opposites that posit old/antique with new/futuristic. This could make the poster work on a deeply subconscious level by easing our minds into a happy middle place found between that dichotomy.

STORY TIME: DATE NIGHT

2010-04-02T19:21:00.009-04:00

EXT. CAFE IN PARIS, FRANCE 1896 - EVENING

WOMAN
My, this is so lovely!

MAN
Yes, it's one of Paris' finest cafes.

Enter WAITER

MAN
Garçon, one cognac for me and an absinthe for the madame.

Enter WAITER with drinks

WOMAN
Oh, this, what is it, absinthe, has a very curious taste.

MAN
Yes, it's good for you. Here (nudges cognac across table), now try this.

MAN leans on elbow on table and grins cunningly

MAN
Drink up, darling, drink up.

FADE OUT

DEEP THOUGHT

2010-03-31T21:31:00.003-04:00

Time to declare your major:
BFA Information Design

CREATIVE CLASS

2010-03-25T21:16:00.005-04:00

RICHARD FLORIDA

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY (MARCH 2009)

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2010-03-19T18:55:00.002-04:00

HOLY MISE-EN-SCENE

2010-03-17T19:02:00.008-04:00

This stop-motion animation-style video by the director "Pes" (a.k.a. Adam Pesapane) for the Washington State Lottery is delicious. The colours are so luscious and the palettes of each scene are harmonious in their simplicity. Also, this video is a great example of reappropriation (one of the post-modern principles of art) in its utilization of everyday objects as landscape settings and props. For example, white rubber gloves as snow on the mountain, pine cones as trees, and lunch box as barn.

BIG SHITPILE: THE MOVIE

2010-03-17T00:25:00.005-04:00

click for larger

It's fun to play Oliver Stone.

AVOIDING THE INFORMATION HOLE

2010-03-12T15:33:00.007-05:00

Jenny Holzer, Protect Me From What I Want, 1986. New York, NY.

The Information Age is packed with, well, information. Tons of data enter our awareness on a daily -- perhaps even hourly -- basis. Just walk outside. You look down and there is a newspaper. You pick it up, maybe check out the headlines. Your phone buzzes and you read a few email, click on a link, check out a web site. You walk down the street with your newspaper in your hand, your phone in your pocket and your ipod in your ear. To the left is an advertisement on the side of a newsstand. To the right is a digital sign. When you return home, you turn on your t.v. and scan through the channel guide to find something interesting to watch. While you do some online shopping. Blog reading. And investigate hotel options in Tunisia. And then your phone buzzes.

This slice of the day is typical for many people. We are accustomed to doing several things at once (almost exclusively, which means that the word "multitasking" is now archaic) by processing words, images, other words all at the same time. Information. Lots of information.

So with all of this information swirling in and around our heads, how do we select what to pay attention to and allow entrance into ourselves? Sure, you could go with chance or something in front of you. Or drive yourself crazy by being indecisive. Or...

You could have someone else do the selecting for you. That person, who we can call the "Sorter," is responsible for isolating and ushering in information. Your Sorter should be smart. Curious. Engaging. And have a similar perspective to your own. Two examples of Sorters include the following:

• Jenny Holzer - (conceptual artist) helps sort by isolating certain aspects of literacy, mostly in the form of arphorisms or selections from government documents. She then enlarges them to a vast scale, which forces us to pause and look so that we take in information that is thought-provoking. Holzer's "Protect Me From What I Want" was projected in NYC's Times Square in the 1980s. Stop and think about that.

• Oliver Stone - (filmmaker) is a Sorter by virtue of the moving image. He steps back and isolates a sliver of our culture that is interesting or significant. This sliver is usually the life of a person, whose life details could easily be lost in the "Information Hole." Such examples include Jim Morrison of The Doors and George W. Bush. By pulling this information out and pushing it into our consciousness in the form of a film, Stone enshrines and enlarges these interesting parts of contemporary humanity. And what could be a better medium than film, which is both enjoyable and is easy to process since it is visual information. Pretty powerful stuff.

MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY

2010-02-26T22:07:00.007-05:00

It appears that the red+white+blue+circle scheme has exceeded its capacity for unique logo generation. Although it does seem that the Missile Defense Agency's graphic designer is a republican with a beach-boys and/or McCain fetish. The new logo (center) has an unmistakable resemblance to the Iranian Space Agency's logo, however the latter's iconography is not as aggressive. One could argue that the ISA's logo depicts each of our solar system's rings as white lines with the red circle being the moon and the white circle (the negative space that eats into the blue circle that contains the orbit rings) being the earth -- the proportions seem accurate. That single dark line in the shape of an oval represents the earth's orbit.

Now let's look back at the MDA's new logo. It is easy to interpret the iconography as a missile bomb-bomb-bombing Iran. How? The circle of negative space (seen as light blue here) represents earth, as the U.S. tends to create visual identities and logos that are overwhelmingly directly connected to us since we perceive ourselves to be the center of the universe. The narrowing of the red band implies perspective (big to small or wide to narrow) and just happens to be going from about the location of where the U.S. would be to the location of where Iran would be on a globe. As the name implies, the MDA deals with missiles so it would make sense to depict a missile in the logo. And the star? An explosion? The sun? Who knows. The imagery is cryptic, but what else could that red band be?

FEED ME

2010-02-22T16:30:00.013-05:00

Feed. Not food. Not feeding food. Just "feed." The name implies a connection to domestic farm animal food (e.g. cow feed), which of course is not interpreted literally by viewers so as to be intended for bovine consumption, but is semiotically connected to the farm, the homegrown, and thus the natural.

The use of light brown as the dominant package color reinforces this connection. It is not white, which would connote bleaching. Let's look at sugar for a minute. Domino white sugar is posited against Sugar in the Raw. The former is refined, processed, and therefore removed from the land. Accordingly, Domino's logo is dyed blue laid out on a yellow, blue and white package. Although this is obviously unhealthy, people still buy this brand that they understand is processed -- it looks pretty, white and confectionary. And cakes are envisioned as white frosted things, which strengthens the connection of white processed sugar to white -- unhealthy -- birthday cake. Sugar in the Raw has the same method of imprinting its brand, albeit as the the natural, unprocessed, close-to-the-land sugar. It comes in brown paper packages and has one-color printing, which implies a lack of dyes. It is good to remember that dyes are not good since they have been linked to cancer... re: Red #40.

One can then see the parallel for Feed granola -- they are not the Domino of the granola industry. Their position as a supremely natural, of-the-land, homemade, organic granola is a strong one and should not be tampered with. Accordingly, their package design is very good not just in terms of working the principles of design and all of the formal stuff that works subconsciously in our minds, but in terms of the visual components of the package design fitting perfectly with the brand ethos.

How does it accomplish this? We've already looked at the color of the package as a balanced brown that conveys natural without being too heavy in the brown-paper-bag hue. Even in tactility it succeeds as natural because if you pick up a package it doesn't have that shiny, slippery plastic feel because of the matte color applied to the package. Because of its light color, the actual brown used falls into a beige category that enables it to work harmoniously with the various colors of each flavor. Goldenrod yellow. Apple green. Cranberry red. Cacao brown. Even the individual flavor colors avoid the red #40 dye trap; they are pulled from colors found in nature that correlate with the flavor. They succeed by using color hues that are not very vibrant, as that would imply unnaturally man-made like, for example, the colors and flavors of Life Savors candy. Utterly inorganic.

The [FEED] colors are great choices. The rest of the package design is subdued enough to allow each flavor color to stand out with richness. The typography does not compete with the flavor indication, nor does it overwhelm the logo. [FEED] is the dominant typographic element due to its large scale and the use of eye-focusing brackets. Also, the proportions work so that the logo space is 50% of the front and the flavor/actual product takes up the other 50%. But it all remains balanced because of the visually heavy presence of the [FEED] logo. In addition to scale, the heavy presence is also achieved by using a dark color. Black would be too severe and would not work within the natural-brown-woodsy-land brandsphere. Instead, a dark brown is used. This color is also used for the other extraneous, albeit necessary, typography like the "whole grain granola" product descriptor, the weight, the kosher seal, etc on the bottom. The result is unity. Using white and/or black and/or gold and/or orange, etc. for the non-logo typography would undermine the beautiful unity that is found in the current package design. Consider the typeface used for the logo, the "whole grain granola," and the flavor name such as "raisin nut." It is of the same family, which again achieves harmony and unity. The use of uppercase for the logo makes it distinct from the other type on the package. And the use of lowercase for the others puts these typographic elements together in one secondary group, thereby simplifying the visual "load" of elements. The use of a serif typeface is a throwback to ye olde time of general stores, which again underscores the homegrown feel of the brand. To render the type in a modern sans serif face like Univers would make Feed jump over to the Domino sugar, refined, machine-made, inorganic brandspace.

Other stuff. The diagonal positioning of [FEED] is really smart. Diagonals in design are very dynamic and help guide the eye while they simultaneously balance the layout. The circular element that highlights a feature of the product (contains flaxseeds -- yay!), stands out because 1) it is a circle 2) it is white and 3) it overlaps other mainstay elements in the design. But this isn't bad. It doesn't detract from the brand's visual identity because, simply by being a foreign white circle, it isn't an integrated part of brand. Seeing the actual product through a window is always good. In this case the product -- since it is marvelously all natural and scrumptious -- matches the color palette. But the window also works proportionally because it takes up 50% of the space in that rounded-corner box. The other 50% is occupied by the golden yellow flavor elements. The result is a balanced weight, which is pleasing to the eye.

All that said, the product is great. And great products deserve great design. Kudos.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2010-02-19T15:41:00.003-05:00

QUICKIE ART HISTORY

2010-02-13T18:07:00.011-05:00

This poster by Vuk Vidor embodies what good advertising people do -- make a brand "stand for" a one or two-word something. e.g. Volvo - safe; Sony - style

It is a simple, clear system and allows us to remember a name or brand that would have otherwise vanished into obscurity should similar others try to shout alongside or above it. Perhaps our interest in this paring down of concepts and categorizing just comes down to our limited memory capacity. We are living in the Information Age and thus have little "metanarratives" of data thrown at us constantly without any imaginable end point. PDAs, computer data, email, blog rolls, taxi tv, wild postings, bus ads, radio, t.v., ipod music, etc. We seek out knowledge and knowledge seeks us out. Quite frankly, it's overwhelming and a little scary. But that's going to be the struggle of humanity for the 21st century and beyond. A theme worth exploring through the arts.

DEEP THOUGHT

2010-02-11T23:30:00.006-05:00

(Not enough arm hair to be The Wolfman)

LINES OF LANGUISH

2010-02-06T20:16:00.011-05:00

Sharp. Hard. Focus. Evans' Depression-era photographs find beauty and respectability in impoverished conditions. While they seem to tell a story, they actually might not. Instead, Evans provides a blank gaze for us to construct our own stories for what we see. His photographs of people confront, but since they do so in such a strong and dignified way, the viewer's expected feelings of empathetic distress are quickly quashed by the disconnect, thereby compelling the viewer to think the image through.

In his photographs of interiors and exteriors -- such as the image above -- Evans is able to produce a lyricism that naturally permeates the shot simply because of his sensory intake of the immediate environment, which in this case is a poverty-stricken farm in late 1930s Alabama. In other words, the subjects he has already taken photos of have impacted him so that his unconscious guides him to shoot interiors and exteriors that echo the same dignified distress as the people. This particular photograph, which seems to be of the saddest kitchen shelf one could ever imagine, invites us to construct a reality. A reality perhaps of the worn mother using the last of the salt for dinner or a ragged young girl cleaning the two forks she shares with her whole family. The absence of people makes the viewer want to put them back in.

Visually, the stark contrast of the black and white allows the worn texture of the wood grain to become acutely apparent. The element of line is very forceful, especially in how the straight verticals of the wall planks are bisected by imperfect, bent diagonals. Since eyes are naturally drawn to circular forms, upon first glance a viewer may first see the ring hanging on the left before being carried to the right by the long horizontal shelf. But there is one magic element that pulls this photograph together so that without it, this print would not have made it out of the darkroom. It is the visual anchor: the dark rounded canister hanging to the right of the salt shaker. If you blot it out with your thumb, the photo just washes over because of the loss of that stopping point. It works by grabbing your gaze so that you linger and are forced to process the photograph as a whole.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2010-01-29T23:03:00.000-05:00

FISCHL'S CRACKS OF DISCOMFORT

2010-01-26T23:01:00.011-05:00

Eric Fischl. Daddy's Girl. 1984. Oil on canvas. 198 x 78 in.

In a century from now what will be Eric Fischl's artistic oeuvre? Dali makes us startle. Matisse makes us smile. And Fischl? Fischl makes us uncomfortable.

His work is imbued with thick tension as he captures tantalizing juxtapositions by camera that would otherwise have been lost in the nanoseconds of time. Within those photos are split seconds that represent the "cracks" of the world he is witnessing that then get transposed onto canvas. More than that, however, the man himself exudes his oeuvre. Those in his physical presence are made uncomfortable by Fischl's words, body language, subtextual sexual innuendo, hidden metaphors, etc. and one is left to wonder if Fischl even realizes that he is doing it. Just as Salvador Dali was surrealist showman, Fischl is discomfort.

The painting above, Daddy's Girl, emerges from the discomfort inherent in our anxieties and problems concerning the naked body. Fischl readily accepts this confrontation as a look into what appears to be a friendly look at a summer day on high cliffs of St. Tropez. Blue sky. White-hot house. Flip-flops. Cold glass of ice tea. As relaxing as this scene seems, it is belied by the classic Fischl tension that is always found in the details. For instance, one of Fischl's last additions to the composition is a very quenching glass of ice tea that may teeter off the ledge at the slightest touch of wind. This glass is placed between the characters and the viewer, thereby connecting the viewer's gaze intimately to the scene; it feels as though we're sitting in the painting at eye level with the drink, which is right in our reach. The glass also stands out a visual stopping point, balancing out the blue of the sky as its complementary colour. Another detail is the staircase that leads up to a rail-less balcony from which a little toddler could easily tumble. And the dangling flip-flop that is about to fall off. Clearly there is a running theme of "falling," which itself doesn't really matter; it is the "almost," the moment right before the fall, that is fun for Fischl to psychologically exploit.

As the title of the painting says, however, the subject of the painting is the people. The position of the little girl on top of her daddy is that of a very close embrace. But wait. It seems as though the girl is struggling to get off. How old is that girl? Why are these people naked? Wait, is that his... oh, nevermind. When he began this painting, Fischl asked himself, "what's wrong with flesh-on-flesh?" The image above features a man hugging a little girl. There's nothing really askew, yet we don't trust that because the two figures are alone. And in knowing that, we start to build a narrative and concede that if something was to be going on, we would not be able to stop it. Or we think that there could be something going on unconsciously between them. Suddenly the viewer of the painting is conscious of her own perverse and lewd expectations.

It's a very uncomfortable position.

WAIT, WHO WON?

2010-01-20T00:00:00.003-05:00

WEATHER WONDERINGS

2010-01-15T18:26:00.004-05:00

Top: weather.com, Bottom: weatherunderground.com

Two of the main web sites that let us know if we're wearing sandals or sweaters today are Weather.com and WeatherUnderground.com. While in theory they should provide the same data, the reality is that Weather.com looks, well, really bad in comparison to the less-fancy, but gauge-driven WeatherUnderground.com.

From a brand perspective, Weather.com (The Weather Channel) seems to have the upper hand with its absolute name and the same trusted blue-square logo from the teevee heydays. But such is not the case. In the early 2000s The Weather Channel wanted to capitalize on greater ad dollars, which they thought was possible through developing original programming. Big mistake. We just wanted our weather on the :08s... a little radar... humidity... maybe even some averages and records. Alright, we'll take the talking heads. Paul Goodloe, et al. But they forgot -- or just ignored -- that viewers tuned into that channel to get the information they needed in a succinct forecast, not to see how people in Kansas chase down thunderstorms. That same fatal error has been carried over into Weather.com so that it becomes annoying difficult to get the information that we came to the web site for in the first place.

Despite the unsophisticated logo and a coincidental name relation to a terrorist group, Weather Underground has the upper hand. Now more than ever we seek out information that we want fully and immediately. Weather forecasts inherently come with oodles of numerical data that can be presented in a variety of ways. The appeal of Weather Underground is that they understand this and thus seek to give us data in a glance that has a visual likeness to the information aeronautical professionals use.

On the left hand side of the Weather Underground's local weather page there is a bordered box that calls out the important stats: temp, wind, humidity, pressure, visibility, UV index, etc. We also get a thumbnail of radar in a glance that we can choose to enlarge. If we have the time, our eyes may then sweep to the right to take in the 5-day forecast in one gulp. The colour-coding of the high and low temps and percentages of precipitation lets us take in this information even faster. There are also all sorts of other goodies that we can check out if we want to: latitude and longitude, astronomy, diverse radar views, the time, and even a WunderPhotos gallery for especially interesting weather-related photos. All of this is condensed into the default viewing space of the browser window. The difference between the two web sites is stark in the screenshots that appear above. Conclusion: Weather.com provides 5% of the information Weather Underground provides in the same amount of space.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2010-01-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

WHO SHOT THE CUCKOO?

2010-01-11T13:00:00.003-05:00

It's about time that a new type of wall clock came into existence that considers not only the design of the piece itself but also the environment in which the clock shall live. This design probably evolved from subconscious knowledge of the irrelevancy of wall clocks; we mainly use wristwatches and mobile phones to tell time these days. Enter the Insert Clock designed by Leo Yiu Chun Pong. A functional sculpture.

More clock porn: http://www.nextime.nu

DIE HASELNUSS

2010-01-09T20:37:00.006-05:00

One of the smartest elements in Toffifee's package design is the use of green to complement the rich browns. Without the green the package would seem cheap because the green leaves indicate the implied use of real ingredients. The leaves also act as a garnish for the toffs just as they would chocolate mousse or souffle, which then raises Toffifee's value to consumers by reminding us of similarity to the aforementioned desserts. On the same note, the inside tray is gold so that it fits with the upscale brand. It also is a nice accent, both in colour and texture, to the brown+amber+white+green colour palette on the outside of the box. The best part? The toffs taste just as good as they look.

ALL THE RAGE

2010-01-07T10:19:00.007-05:00

This pervasive colour palette has officially jumped the shark. Architects all over the world are going through a "Red Orange+Gray" phase (e.g. contemporary homes, Brandhorst Museum interior, et al). It is no longer cutting edge to throw this bold colour onto the subdued tones of modernity. Mustard yellow anyone?

LITTLE HIPPIES

2009-12-19T12:40:00.005-05:00

It is always nice to see classic toys evolve to stay relevant with consumers. Dollhouses are no longer standard playroom toys in an age where the computer itself is one big dollhouse. Many parents begrudgingly let their kids play games online, however there is still the nostalgia of physical play that is delightfully brought to fruition with this fun Eco House. It features a rain barrel, a windmill, solar panels and of course recycling bins. Go hippies!

Such a product brings up the question of why we like to represent our lives and our families for our children to experience through play. Perhaps it is a way for adults to visually educate young children on the structure of life to give them a sense of security. Although the idea that everything is contained in one neat house is only going to set up those kids up for disappointment. As much as we want everything to fit into a box, it is not feasible since life is messy. Providing an idealized foundation, however, sets the standard from which we will deviate as adults. Regardless, we can still hope that this house imprints on the minds of our kiddies the normalcy of alternative energy and responsible consumption. (Or it's just another secret plot for the dirty hippies to take over the world.)

CAUGHT RED HANDED!

2009-12-16T11:49:00.005-05:00

Holy hell. MoMA's restaurant, The Modern, using the "typeface" Brush Script! Brush Script!

NEW NY TIMES SKIM: NO MORE SKIMMING

2009-12-09T14:49:00.009-05:00

Top: Old; Bottom: New

Really, New York Times, really? I can't believe it. The old article skimmer was a gorgeous Swiss-like grid of impossibly clear and satisfying order. The number of elements was kept at a strict minimum: sidebar, boxes, title bar, simple arrows. The new and supposedly improved skimmer brings in so much clutter and levels the elements so that they are so visually similar that the eye glazes over the entire page as one rather than quickly skimming from box to box like the old one. The New York Times is such a respected news source so it is a shame that this new design actually prevents the very thing it is intended to do: skim. Pardon the brusque criticism, but this re-design was a mistake and I intend to prove why.

One of the biggest follies in the redesign is the elimination of the hairlines that gridded out the page. This element made it very easy to make the jump from box to box while skimming. It also reinforced the equality of the text in the boxes. I can't begin to stress enough how important this detail is to the use of the site.

The colour palette has also been revamped. For some reason the new skimmer nixed the dark blue in favour of grays. The design director most likely reasoned this backpedaling by calling the new design "simpler," more "pure," and "in line with the visual identity of the black-and-white printed newspaper." Right. Okay. But leveling out the whole page in grays causes the eye to dance back and forth all over the place looking for a point to fix the gaze; in the old version the blue news headlines helped anchor the eye to streamline the optical process of actual skimming since it was the only colour on the page. The blue headlines were a useful part of the site, as that is exactly what users are looking to read and then decide to click from there.

The section sidebar jumped over to the right side of the page and so must realign itself every time you stretch the window to make it larger since more boxes come into the grid as the window becomes larger. Assuming one does not enlarge the window, the sidebar was an essential part of the quick skim since it enabled users to select their topic right away and then read the stories in a top-down mental process. The right-hand side bar forces users to first read or get distracted by the headlines on the page. In the same vein, the top bar became white (see "simple," "pure," et al above) so that it, too, becomes a part of the skimming content so as to sidetrack the eye.

Even the arrows were not spared. The old skimmer contained just the essentials: the page number and left/right arrows. First of all, why make them into buttons? We know to click on the arrows to go on to the next page. Additionally, we know what a left arrow looks like and what a right arrow looks like. Why, then, must they build in even more clutter by writing out "previous" and "next" -- they introduced 8 characters instead of 1 for the former. This is unneccessary and undermines the whole idea of skimming.

The ads. Okay, so apparently clicking the story to lead into the full article with all of its ads and banners isn't enough. The New York Times wanted another ad unit to sell. Of course it breaks up the flow of the skimmer and by doing so, it prevents the eye from skimming by acting as a visual blockade or stopping point. If they really, really needed to keep the unit, the addition of those hairlines would have helped keep it contained to look less intrusive. And of course there is the problem of content-delivering web sites not realizing how valuable online advertising is these days. The cost per unit should be much higher. It is no longer 2001 -- advertisers are no longer skeptical about putting ads on the wild west internets.

And last but not least, why do they have so many typefaces going on? The beauty of the old skimmer was that the headlines were of equal weight except for the lead story, which was given two boxes' worth of width and a larger type size. Since it was in the same typeface as the rest of the headlines, it stayed in the streamline of headlines while still standing out. The new version italicizes that lead headline, which makes the eye get stuck on it briefly because it stands out too much.

I will be very interested to see the percentage by which the number of visitors drops. If you would like to encourage the New York Times to revert back to the old design, please send feedback through this form or email Martin Nisenholtz, the SVP of Digital Operations at digitalsvp@nytimes.com.

BLUE AND ORANGE

2009-11-30T21:44:00.002-05:00

They obviously forgot how big the colour wheel is.

AN ALTERNATE EMPLOYMENT OPTION

2009-11-11T10:56:00.003-05:00

Source: Facebook.com

A not-so-bad take on the excessive use of recession-speak in advertising. Humor is a great way of reaching people and pairing that humor with the usually serious and somber economic relevance communication breaks through in a charming sort of way.

DEEP THOUGHT

2009-11-09T13:41:00.002-05:00

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2009-11-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

HTC

2009-10-29T20:42:00.004-04:00

Bad brand name. Good tv spot. It is a good example of how the choice of soundtrack matters so much in making or breaking commercials. Try watching this on mute with a different song in the background. It could have a cheesy tone by being set to "Chain Reaction" by Carly Commando like this American Express OPEN tv spot. But it doesn't. This HTC spot has the tone of fast, dramatic, intense, sure, and moving thanks to "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone.

NOT A FLOP

2009-10-29T15:24:00.010-04:00

Fitflop print ad. Subway train. 2009.

This ad has a good tagline: "Get a workout while you walk."

It is a pretty compelling print piece. The model in the photo is very thin and is posed in such a way that thins and elongates her legs. Even the diagonal of her blue shirt over the skirt brings the eye upward. Also, we're not distracted by a pretty face since the photo is cut off at the model's neck. The shoe has a unique textured fabric that at once looks rich and lengthens the model's leg because of the backless mule style. The choice of location -- a supermarket -- is a great one because it's a place where everyone goes almost every day and works with the casual style shoe. The headline is as good as the tagline because of its truth and appeal to our inner desire for an easy-as-possible work-out.

A REGULAR CHOICE

2009-10-24T18:13:00.004-04:00

These are one of the most stunning heels this fall: Irregular Choice's "Flick Flack". The addition of two tone fabric on the front of the shoes (black with white polka dots and black and white stripes) makes this shoe very unique not to mention very flattering by using the diagonal line of the flap and the vertical stripes to elongate the leg.

The exterior is black patent, which trots happily on rainy days and also catches the eye. It is very natural for humans to be attracted to shiny things. This could be explained by a variety of reasons including the notion that patent reflects light, which man has been attracted to for basic survival (water, the sun) throughout time. A more narcissistic approach is that we like to see our own reflections. More likely, however, is that we want something new, untarnished and clean; shine accentuates these qualities.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2009-10-23T10:38:00.001-04:00

ARTICLE SKIMMER

2009-10-18T16:27:00.009-04:00

These days most of us get our news online. As such, it's important for news web sites to be very user friendly and a pleasure to read. Yet so many news sites rely on the same column layout styles. The New York Times, however, gives us news how we actually read news: by skimming. Each bit of information is in the same size box (except the one feature story, which is two boxes), so that our eyes are able to skim easily because each article is of equal weight. This definitely satisfies the OCD-style order we all secretly crave.

SEXY SPORTY STUBBY

2009-10-15T23:04:00.011-04:00

BMW Z4 Top: new body; Bottom: old body

The problem with the old BMW Z4 body is that it is what every man does not want to be: stubby. It looks like the long front hood was lifted from the 3 or 5 series and stuck onto a sports car. Visually, it is unbalanced and disproportionate. This is largely because the length from the front grill to the door hinge is nearly the same length as the second half of the car from the door hinge to the tail light. Finally, female designers* gave the new body -- that started with the 2009 model -- harmony and balance by optically correcting the "stubby" effect. This was corrected in mostly two simple strokes: 1) the hood does not dip in where it meets the windshield, but rather the line continues and visually connects with the line of the top of the trunk in a unified degree of curvature. That subtle dip found in the earlier models is very slight, but makes a big difference. 2) The trunk seems chopped off at the end, which makes the car feel too short and thus makes the front half front-heavy. Adding to that is the window that sensually curves around to the right to parallel the shape of the hard top and continue the curve of the body whereas the old model's window is cut off, like the trunk, with a hard vertical line. For years men have been driving around in a short and stubby sports car, and it is actually quite funny that it took a team of women to help make this man's midlife crisis vehicle more ferociously masculine.

* Exterior by Juliane Blasi and interior by Nadya Arnaout

ATTRACTION REPULSION

2009-10-14T00:20:00.005-04:00

Road Kill Carpet. Wool, 65x94"

So you want something to soften your step on your wood floors. Something that adds to your decor. Something that is a bear skin rug, but won't get the PETA people to attack you. Something like this... OOOMS' roadkill rug.

Perhaps the appeal of this rug stems from that feeling we all get as we drive by a slaughtered fox or bunny on the road. We are interested in looking at the dead thing, which is radically different and removed from the image of an animal we're used to seeing as cute and alive. Emotionally, we're sad. Yet we also feel guilty for staring at the grotesque animal. The rug allows us to satisfy that desire to look, yet softens our gaze as it reminds us of cartoons. Dead and scary. Yet cute and cuddly. There is a realistic colour palette of smoke gray (the road) with a touch of red and brown. The placement of the roadkill on the corner functions to make the kill seem real -- it is life-size -- without overwhelming the rug itself. Also, the width of the kill is just about half the width of the rug and one-third of the length, which gives the eye a pleasing balance.

HOW TO FIX MAGAZINES: CENTRALIZE AND SIMPLIFY

2009-10-09T12:15:00.009-04:00

Magazines and newspapers are continuing to lament their dwindling circulations and inevitable deaths. Their web sites may or may not charge for content. They are losing money. It's a problem. Want to know how to fix it?

Part of the problem with media today is that it is incredibly disorganized and all over the place. Many people have subscriptions to an assortment of media such as: The Wall Street Journal online, Financial Times newspaper, The Economist magazine, on-demand pay-per-view movies, etc. The problem is that a consumer must go directly to each medium they want access to and pay for each separately. In other words, it is not easy for consumers to consume media. If there was one central place in which one could subscribe to everything all at once, perhaps consumers would subscribe to more media. That is why I propose centralizing all media subscriptions in one spot to make things fast and easy for consumers who largely have no time to leisurely shop for and subscribe to magazines, online access, newspapers, movies, internet, tv, etc. Since cable tv/internet providers are ubiquitous in being common to almost all households, the easiest thing would be to throw subscriptions onto the provider's bill. Not only does it make it easy for consumers, but it also keeps tabs on which subscriptions are due to expire and when. In fact, Time Warner already has online bill pay so adding this would not be a monumental endeavor.

Media could be sorted by category for consumers to simply check boxes:

Cable TV
☒ All Channel plan
☐ 100 Channels plus HBO, Showtime

Internet
☐ Earthlink high-speed
☒ Roadrunner high-speed

Telephone (landline and/or wireless)
☐ Unlimited calling plan
☐ Wireless plan

Magazines
☐ Wallpaper
☒ Dwell
☐ The Economist
☒ The Week
...etc.

Magazines Online
☐ dwell.com
☒ economist.com
☐ cosmopolitan.com
☐ theweek.com
...etc.

Newspapers
☒ The New York Times
☐ The Wall Street Journal
☐ Le Figaro
...etc.

Newspapers Online
☐ www.wsj.com
☒ www.nytimes.com
...etc.

LET'S GO TO THE LOO

2009-10-02T20:19:00.004-04:00

Forget fancy nameplates. Office restroom signs deserve creative design.

WANTED: GOOD DESIGN

2009-09-29T23:03:00.005-04:00

Dear Switzerland,

Please help.

Sincerely,
New York

VINYL VINO

2009-09-27T22:57:00.006-04:00

The brilliance of this vinyl sticker is the pleasing way in which a real object that you already own becomes the star of the art work. Kind of makes Duchamp a lot less exciting.

ABSOLUT WORLD

2009-09-25T17:26:00.006-04:00

Absolut wild posting. Houston Street, New York.

While the simplicity and unity of the colour palette and typography make for a beautiful poster, I really don't care about some absolut fantasy world I know nothing about that is the basis of this campaign. I am in this world and I will live, die and drink my vodka here.

EVEN HITLER HATES COMIC SANS

2009-09-23T22:53:00.006-04:00

Arial? Mistral? Papyrus? Schweine!

Watch it here

GUERNICA

2009-09-23T12:01:00.010-04:00

Picasso, Pablo. Guernica. 1937. Oil on canvas. 25' 6" x 11' 5"

In 1884 a serious earthquake struck Malaga. A three year old was whisked through the town, his eyes wide in awe and horror at the contorted and screaming faces, bodies lying in the street, and collapsed horses and other farm animals left half-dead. This highly observant child plunged deep into the chaos and looked on at the scene around him, confused and disoriented, but curious. The boy's mother, writhing and screaming in pain amidst the destruction and turmoil, gave birth to his sister that very night before him.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2009-09-18T12:08:00.001-04:00

OBJECTS OF CO-DEPENDENCY

2009-09-12T15:47:00.005-04:00

Just Between You and Me

Just Keeping an Eye on You

From a series by Keetra Dean Dixon. Let the imagination fill in the blanks.

GLORIOUS INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

2009-09-07T13:10:00.009-04:00

Don't call it a movie. This is a film.

Much of the brilliance of this film arises from the ways in which writer and director Quentin Tarantino playfully toys with what audiences and film theorists expect in a genre film. Inglourious Basterds is technically a contemporary western, however Tarantino sets out to either break or modify all of the traditional codes inherent in the genre. Check it out:

Code: Good guy wears a white hat
Modified Code: Good guy wears a white tuxedo

Code: Takes place in the American West
Modified Code: Features lead character from American West
Modified Code: Opening scene is in the country that visually resembles the American Great Plains

Code: There's a saloon or bar where both hero and villain drink hard liquor
Modified Code: The villain drinks a glass of milk

Code: There's a big shoot out at the end
Modified Code: The film is one big shoot out -- Pvt. Fredrick Zoller's film, which carries the plot along, is entirely a shoot out

We're all used to the same formula wrapped up in a happy little package: the set-up, the conflict, the tease of a resolution, and finally the resolution. Tarantino distorts multiple macro and micro aspects of the film so that it first violates our schema for genre; and then he distorts the narrative by breaking the rules of history in a pleasantly unexpected way. Cinematically, his attention to detail through words and mise-en-scene imprints certain images and moments in our minds. The result is a real auteur film right up there with Truffaut, Renoir and Hitchcock that derives its strength from the director also being at the helm of the screenplay.

The Characters
They're incredibly well-developed. Many of the characters get their own songs as they are introduced in the film and they each have such individual quirks that they become complex and memorable. For example, "White Lightning" by Charles Bernstein for Lt. Aldo; "Slaughter" by Billy Preston for Stiglitz; and "The Surrender" by Ennio Morricone for Sgt. Donowitz. Another detail that gets images and scenes to stick in viewers' minds is the use of a memorable nick-name. Inglourious Basterds is loaded with good ones: "The Bear Jew" and "The Jew Hunter". Even the characters' actual names are deliberately one of a kind: Shosanna, Aldo, Landa, von Hammersmark, Zoller, Wilhelm Wicki.

The Soundtrack
Just because we're in WWII doesn't mean we have to listen to the same old WWII swing music. Tarantino pops out of the period by including non-diegetic music like a song by David Bowie. And really, why the hell should we absolutely have to transport our mindsets to the 1940s when we're viewing right now in the 2000s? As mentioned above, to give his characters more depth and weight Tarantino bestows some with an entrance theme song, each being appropriate not only in terms of title and lyrics, but actual mood and feel of the song. The use of music simply for relevant lyrics is the mark of a true simpleton director.

Language
Throughout the film Tarantino outwardly plays with the roles of viewer and director so that our existing expectations of language are jostled. In the first scene in which Col. Landa is introduced the exchange is, as expected, in French with English subtitles. But then Landa, the character, says to LaPadite for us, the audience, let's use English; they then resume their conversation in English. It seems to be a snide way of poking fun at the absurdity of other films that use dialogue in other languages just to remain historically and culturally accurate. A film is a creative work of art that doesn't necessarily have to be so accurate. Tarantino comes back to again mock language used for language's sake during the tavern scene in which the Basterds have a meeting with von Hammersmark. Lt. Hicox' German accent is "off" according to one of the enemy SS soldiers, which then sets off one of Tarantino's trademark Mexican stand-off scenes. There is one more stab at language during the climax of the movie premiere. This time Tarantino brings to light the embarrassing truth that Americans only know English and are stupidly limited when a second language is needed.

Let's not forget the title of the film and its intentional misspelling. "Basterds" could refer to the uneducated George Bush-style American stupidity that Aldo represents. "Inglourious" could have simply been misspelled simply to match "Basterds" or it could be, like many of Tarantino's other touches, a way of distinguishing the film as one of a kind to stand out amongst war movies (especially 1977's The Inglorious Bastards). The idea of labeling this renegade group as honorless when they doing what Americans should have done during Hitler's reign seems nonsensical. It was the American public and the government present during WWII that were the actual inglorious ones, as they were too high up on a morality horse to assasinate an evil dictator. Or too inept to do so (but I don't buy that).

The Shot
Auteur directors usually scrutinize every single shot so that frames are staged in artful ways independent of the film's story or plot. The opening scene of Inglourious contains frames that are very unbalanced with many vertical lines striking through the filmic landscape; the way in which the axe is left slicing into the trunk of a tree is at once malicious and violent. The shot of the axe foreshadows not only the violence that is about to come, but it also conveys a feeling of anger that comes to set the backbone of the entire vengeful narrative.

Notice anything especially visually compelling in the opening scene? The colour palette and presence of props and landscape is kept to a minimum for a clean and striking impact. The shots are not cluttered with stuff so that select props stand out very markedly: the axe, the glass of white milk. Many of the scenes are clean by sticking with one predominant colour or similar blend of colours such as the luscious, saturated reds of the movie premiere theater scene: the red Nazi flags sumptuously draped all over Shosanna's theater, the red of Shosanna's plump lips, and the fluttering sensuality of Shosanna's elegant red dress. These deep reds are also function collectively to foreshadow the blood bath that is to come. By exploiting the richness of colour Tarantino gives a level of depth to the film so that it stains our collective consciousness.

Narrative
Finally. A WWII movie in which Hitler actually gets killed. It's about time. For so many years audiences have gotten so accustomed to WWII movies that stay so true to history that it is expected that Hitler lives, at least until his own suicide. Tarantino exploits our deep desire for the evil one to be toppled so that the resolution of the film is intensely satisfying. After all, it is a western.

HOW DO YOU GET YOUR NEWS?

2009-09-01T15:28:00.002-04:00

EYES NEVER CHANGE

2009-08-29T00:18:00.007-04:00

An immutable endearing quality: eyes that you could stand to gaze into forever. Wrinkles, sagging and paunch come with age. Eyes never change.

DEEP THOUGHT

2009-08-26T23:46:00.001-04:00

BLUE AND ORANGE

2009-08-23T23:45:00.001-04:00

Grotesque.

CALL THE MOVING COMPANY

2009-08-19T18:16:00.005-04:00

Richmond Place. Boyd Cody Architects. Dublin, Ireland. 2005.

This brick residence in Dublin is a 2-bedroom and 2-bathroom in the style I like to call Mortem Bauhaus. While the house is remarkable inside and out from a design standpoint, it is just that: a house and not a home. The interior is very hard and cold in pure, pared down colours with the clean, hard lines Bauhausians adore. In addition to feeling frigid, the interior is very unwelcoming -- the antithesis of what we associate with charming Irish culture -- with isolated and sectioned off spaces, which render it more mausoleum than residence.

Richmond Place seems to be a rebellion against the prejudicial, ingrained images the world has of Ireland. A contemporary stand of new against old. A challenge to the prevalent traditional style that has become so ingrained and thoughtless that creativity and innovation have been lost. With a deliberate hard shell to protect itself from the frightening softness and overwhelming emotion of conventional Irish culture. This is readily apparent in the way the sharp corner of the house juts out aggressively into the street. The design is different, yes, but to such an extreme that the house becomes an inhospitable place.

Richmond Place does not invite you in with warmth, a hearth and detailed finishes. The upper left photo shows us the living room and its modest fireplace that is cut into the lower corner of a wall; it is an accessory to the space and not, as is frequently seen, the focal point of the living space. To the upper left of the fireplace is a narrow window that leads to the kitchen. The kitchen, which again is normally another focal point of a home, is removed from the living space. Well, why not. Rigor mortis does not require a full and satiated belly. Even the upper level of the house shows us a ceiling support system that is eerily similar to the hollow rib cage of a whale carcass left to decay on a beach. This design may appeal to some, perhaps those who themselves are cold and hardened. Or perhaps those who desire to bring warmth and touch that will help turn this house into a home.

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

2009-08-14T15:55:00.000-04:00

BRINKS BECOMES BROADVIEW

2009-08-09T11:52:00.007-04:00

Brinks Home Security has changed their name to Broadview Security. It was because in deciding to spin off the home security unit, part of the contract stipulated that they had to change their name otherwise hefty royalty fees would have to be paid to Brinks.

The decision to change the name and re-do the brand identity came at a good time. It is relatively smart to get consumers to process the name change before the housing market turns around and people are more likely to purchase alarm systems for their homes. Although if a product is good and is marketed well then it should not matter, but why not take advantage of the state of our markets right now. Why not? Because in hustling a new visual identity out the door, brand equity was sacrificed.

Consumers have the images of armored trucks and hefty armed men in their minds when they think of "Brinks." As such, it is great for a home security system to piggyback on that association. It creates the feeling of intense security for your home when applied to Brinks Home Security, albeit many consumers just think of "Brinks" and drop the "Home Security" from their minds when they think of this company. This is great. For this company to intentionally dissolve that great connection and go with a name like "Broadview Security" is just a shame. Even if you had to pay royalties, to ditch the Brinks name you better spend a lot of time developing an even better name that doesn't rely on piggybacking on such a strong brand. Broadview just isn't it.

Okay, I get it. The view is broad. They see everything. They know what is happening in your home and can respond appropriately. They are omniscient. Alright, that is applicable. But the name itself is broad. Broadview Optics. Broadview Networks. Broadview Nursing. The meaning of "seeing all" is too broad to be uniquely applicable to home security. And I actually would like my security company to have a narrow view; that is, a view focused in on my home rather than a big, broad view that looks at everything.

The use of Gotham is also broad since that typeface is used heavily in the design world, especially now after President Obama's acclaimed use of it. Gotham is a great typeface; Hoefler & Frere-Jones knows what they're doing. I'm just saying they could have searched deeper for a better fit that is not so prevalent and unassuming. The kerning is tight on this logo, which is good, but the leading between Broadview and Security is too spacious and distances the two words. The typography, however, is the least of this logo's problems. In accordance with the broad idea that the company "sees all" we have two parentheses encapsulating "view" to symbolize the eye. The designer could at least have experimented a lot more with creating shapes rather than simply rotating a parenthesis ninety degrees.

BECOME A CARTOON

2009-08-07T00:03:00.005-04:00

What is so appealing about turning yourself into a cartoon? Or rather, turning your photo into a cartoon.

What would compel someone to click through on this advertisement? It's not as simple as wanting to have an image of yourself in a different and vectorized form. The desire to do this stems from one's interest in one's image. There is no investment in the self here since you are taking something that is already an image of you -- your photo -- and getting another image of you. It's ultimately a representation of you that you want others to see. Cartoon-izing yourself also has another function: to confirm an attractive image. You're not going to submit an unflattering photo for this service; you're going to submit a photo that you believe is attractive. Then when you get back an image of a big-eyed, well-proportioned, perfect-haired cartoon, you will smile and like yourself more because of an image. This ad is contributing to the societal problem of people having a preoccupation with images of their selves rather than just being themselves. Don't click through.