Oddities & Diversions: April 2008

April 30, 2008

twistori

twistori, an ongoing social experiment in love, hate, thinking, believing, feeling, and wishing on Twitter. Inspired by Jonathan Harris’ marvelous project, We Feel Fine.

Web Standards Design + Development

Web Standards Design + Development on Linkedin, a group of Interactive Craftsmen. Today it is a list of names, tomorrow it will be a force for good.

April 29, 2008

&: per se, and

H&FJ on &’s

April 25, 2008

Starcade episodes

15 episodes of Starcade are now online! Starcade is a wonderfully campy game show from the early 80s where contestants play video games and answer video game related trivia for geeky prizes. It’s a majestic train wreck, especially when they pit a teenager against a 40-year-old. More about the show on Wikipedia.

April 22, 2008

A List Apart: Issue 257

A List Apart: Issue 257, The why and how of Ruby on Rails. Articles by Michael Slater and Dan Benjamin.

April 21, 2008

The Machine That Made Us

The Machine That Made Us, an hour long BBC documentary from Stephen Fry on Johannes Gutenberg and the birth of modern printing. They touch on the history and motivations of Gutenburg, and create metal type, paper, and a working printing press. Well worth a viewing, in six parts, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6.

April 16, 2008

Form Element PSDs

Mockup-ready PSDs of OS/browser form elements. Very handy.

April 15, 2008

Soho Gothic

Monotype introduces Soho Gothic, a gorgeous sans serif cousin to last year’s chunky slab serif, Soho. Filed under “Lovely typefaces I can’t afford”.

April 14, 2008

Entering Illustration

Entering Illustration, solid advice from Kevin Cornell about getting into the field of illustration.

April 11, 2008

Smart/Models

Smart/Models: Business Principles for Design Principals, an AIGA NY one-day conference featuring Jason Fried, Matt Owens, Joe Duffy and Eric Block, Sylvia Harris, and Douglas Riccardi. On Saturday, March 17 at the beautiful TimesCenter and only $125 ($100 for members). Sold!

April 10, 2008

On the Map

On the Map, designer Stefanie Posavec’s stunning data visualizations from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, including diagrams for sentence word count, types of quotation and punctuation, and much more. (via kottke)

April 8, 2008

A List Apart: Issue 256

A List Apart: Issue 256, Bring your data to visual life with web standards, and roll you own Google-style maps. Articles by Wilson Miner and Paul Smith.

April 4, 2008

Textism!

Oh, happy day! Dean Allen and Textism appear to be back online (as well as from the precipice). You’ve been sorely missed.

April 2, 2008

Icon Resource

Icon Resource, a video series explaining theory & techniques of icon design, from icon designer extraordinaire, Sebastiaan de With. Costs €95, but judging by the sample video, it looks to be well worth the price.

Sagmeister So Far

The latest film in Hillman Curtis’ Artists Series focuses on Stefan Sagmeister and his exhibit at Deitch Projects for his new book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far.

New UK Coin Designs

New UK Coin Designs, while I’m not in favor of design competitions (a 26 year old designer won for his design), these coins are gorgeous. When arranged together, they display the Royal Arms. (via Typographer

April 1, 2008

Exposure to D & D

NYT’s flowchart tribute to the late Gary Gygax (Dungeons & Dragons co-creator), wonderfully realized by designer and friend, Sam Potts. I especially love how answering “no” to the first crossroads leads directly to sunlight and girls.