A book without any text content, a beautiful object, an amazing rendering of all the colours a monitor can display, a coffee table book that could double as a coffee table... as one blogger noted "It’s a gorgeous cube of many colors!"
Bookiness of the Book
Readers are still coming to terms with what they are losing in the move from paper based to electronic reading:
When I read a physical book, I remember the text and the
book—its shape, jacket, heft and typography. When I read an e-book, I
remember the text alone. The bookness of the book simply disappears, or
rather it never really existed.
Verlyn Klinkenborg, New York Times
Shady Characters
An excellent blog dealing with the history and culture of the dark art (for the grammatically challenged, at least) of punctuation. Learn about the secret life of ampersands, pilcrows, interrobangs and much more.
Getting Appy?
If you are contemplating commissioning an app for whatever reason, take a walk through this website to get a sense of the considerations involved, and the potentially substantial costs. One would need a very good business case to proceed with an app, especially given the relatively poor ROI for Android apps and long tail of iPhone/iPad apps that are rarely purchased.
Punctuate the Smart Way
Word processors often automatically correct punctuation, but web content editors typically do not. This site gives a handy list of the shortcuts (mac and pc) required to achieve smart quote nirvana.
Expo Display Unit
The Australian Academy of Sales wanted a display unit with a listing of all of their courses. White, highly readable type against a deep blue background made the unit highly visible without shouting too loudly.
Trends in Graphic Design
Like all creative fields, graphic design continually lusts for the new while cannibalising and recycling the old. Trend List catalogues aspects of designers' eternal search for novelty and a fresh look. Depending on your perspective, its discoveries are an index of things to emulate, or approaches to avoid.
At the Mercy of the Elements
We've been designing for this event for some years — when the weather gods are benign, a good time is had by all...
Keeping it Clean
Sometimes the design is all about the information...
Digital Design Processes Explained
Newfangled are a web development firm at the bleeding edge of their field. They are quite generous with sharing some of their thinking on designing for the Internet. An interesting recent article suggests that a key part of working towards a new site is the development of 'personas', detailed profiles of prospective users. These personas help the developer to see things from the user perspective. As the author notes "Creating web personas prevents us from mistakenly building websites for ourselves rather than those we want to serve". After interviewing prospective users of a client website, the developer tries to anticipate how the user will view the site and with what aims. The personas make it clear that users with different agendas often visit a given site, and that different triggers / calls to action may be required for those different audiences.
Emails Converted for Your Browser
Scope by Litmus allows users to create a web version of any web based email. As the site's promotional text states: "Create a clean, web-based version of any email, with desktop and mobile previews. It's perfect for sharing, and it's totally free. "
Bookstores Going Away?
Our local bookstore won Australian Bookseller of the Year in 2012. It's a fantastic space, well curated, livened by an ongoing series of displays and literary events. It is clear that the proprietors view it as a passion as much as a business. Yet they have been in the news suggesting business is bad and closure possible. If a bookstore that good is in trouble, then pity the rest. Another local bookstore (children's specialist) shut down a couple of weeks ago. As the outlets shrink in number and shelf space, the economics of book distribution stop working. Deep discounting Internet sellers such as Amazon and the Book Depository have a massive advantage. Mike Shatzkin has done a sterling job of discussing this transition and the change in perspective required in the new digital age. Maybe bookstores will survive in some form, but it is difficult to feel very confident about that at the moment. It is depressing to contemplate entire towns bereft of a place where the life of the mind is given its due.
Touch My Phone
While primarily aimed at app developers, this article also gives laypeople a good idea of how their phones interpret their swipes and taps, introducing concepts such as centroids and contact patches. Accommodating the irregularities of the human hand (and user idiosyncrasies) to the touch sensitive screen substrate has been a mighty labour. Interestingly enough, a commenter to the article states that many smart phones do not detect degrees of pressure, just the fact of the pressure itself..
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Finger Pickin' Good
Our client wanted a business card and letterhead that conveyed the warm feel of the acoustic guitar and a distinctly pre-modern look. We used Cheap Pine, images of our client's guitar and a faded paper background.
Lions and Lilies
Catherine A Wilson and Catherine T Wilson (head to their website for an explanation of that unlikely pairing of names) write entertaining and well researched historical sagas set in medieval times. They have built up a dedicated readership for their "Lions and Lillies" series, and are excellent at building up reader expectations and involvement. We wanted their covers to convey a cinematic sense of excitement and immediacy.
Promote for Your Life
Alison Taafe is an accomplished chef and educator, but also possesses a key additional skill — promotional savvy. When she finishes work on one of her cookbooks, she then devotes just as much energy to making the public aware of it. She makes media appearances, gives demonstrations, interviews and keeps her website up to date and interesting. Aspiring authors would do well to make a study of her methods. Her latest book just sold out its first run.
Crazy Little Heaven
Mark Heyward has made a new life in Indonesia, achieving immersion in a culture that clearly fascinates him. In Crazy Little Heaven , Heyward writes insightfully about his adventures in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and eventual marriage to a local. The cover is a composite of a beautiful hornbill and the (sadly threatened) forests of Borneo. To be launched in both Jakarta and Hobart, the author's home town. Published by Transit Lounge.
Squarespace 6
We have recently upgraded our website from Squarespace 5 to Squarespace 6. Experiencing the usual simplicity of concept and excellence of execution, plus genuinely responsive service. We heartily recommend this excellent service to anyone who wants to roll their own website without having to get their hands dirty with code.
Content Planning for the Modern Web
A thoughtful and detailed take on the very different world of planning and executing a large modern website. First, a thorough inventory of planned content, second a content planning matrix where the site architect learns to "match content with your website's users, their needs, and your purpose", then finally a content production matrix where "you can get into the tactical work of figuring out how that content is going to be produced". Proof that web design is a very different beast than print design, though designers such as Erik Spiekermann would argue that the fundamental constraints of readability and typographic restraint are universal.
Too Many Writers, Not Enough Readers
A plea from an editor to the world's surfeit of aspirant writers: please stop writing — if only for one year. A heartfelt request unlikely to be observed, as millions of writers fight over what seems to be an ever shrinking pool of readers. According to a 'surprising fact' recently encountered on an American website, 80% of American families buy precisely zero books per year, a proportion which no doubt is echoed elsewhere in the western world.