Friday, March 30, 2007

How To Name Your Company

"When you start a company, eventually you are going to have to choose a company name. You may not take the decision that seriously - but trust me, a great name can make all the difference."

by Michael McDerment

Read more...

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Open for Design sponsored by MSN and Infiniti

"Open for Design is a multidisciplinary dialogue about contemporary design in the form of a blog.

The format consists of monthly themes with feature stories and bi-weekly blog entries by practising artists or designers in five categories: style, living, city, art and tech."

Check it out.

Monday, March 26, 2007

What is Google Summer of Code?

" Google Summer of CodeTM is a program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects. Google will be working with a several open source, free software and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Historically, the program has brought together over 1,000 students with over 100 open source projects, to create hundreds of thousands of lines of code."

Read more... and get ready to apply next year

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Pod hotels: small is beautiful

In 1977, Kisho Kurokawa designed the Capsule Inn Osaka, considered the first pod hotel.

Now, Pod hotels are taking over the world: joining easyHotel, in London and Basel, are Yotel, inside London airports; Cube, backpacker bunkhouses in Austria; Qbic, in Antwerp and Amsterdam; and the new Pod Hotel in Manhattan.

Famous car designer, Chip Foose

"In a relatively short career, Chip Foose has created a legacy of designs and accomplishments that are well beyond his years. Chip was born and raised in Santa Barbara California and automobiles were definitely in his blood. Chip's first job was working for his father's company where Chip specialized in project design. By age twelve, Chip already had five years experience under his belt, and had also painted his first car; a Porsche 356.

Early on, a chance meeting from Alex Tremulus, the designer of the "Tucker", was actually Chip's motivation to attend Art Center, where he majored in automotive product design and graduated in 1990 with honors."

"Chip currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Progeria Research Foundation, California Chapter."

Read more...

Posted by Brian Ashe

Friday, March 23, 2007

The 16th Annual Florida Film Festival

"Now in its sixteenth exciting year, the Florida Film Festival showcases the best American Independent and Foreign Films. Produced by Enzian Theater, the Festival has become one of the most respected regional film events in the country."

The 16th Annual Florida Film Festival will take place March 23 - April 1, 2007

Sponsored by Full Sail

American Design Awards

"At American Design Awards we value the importance of eye-catching design pieces, whether in print form or on the web. We recognize that creativity is a gift, and those who can unleash it effectively and ethically are worthy of praise. The American Design Awards offers three types of design competitions - you are invited to participate!"

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Adobe Releases Alpha of Apollo

"Apollo is the code name for Adobe's development system that enables Web developers to leverage their existing skills in Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex, as well as HTML, JavaScript and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), to build and deploy RIAs (rich Internet applications) on the desktop."
By
Darryl K. Taft

Read more...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Typography: Personal Projects

Take a look at Bembo's Zoo and Worlds at Play website. Worls at Play site won the prestigious FLASHFORWARD FILM FESTIVAL 2006 in the category Typography.

Designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, born in Rio de Janeiro, is a Senior Creative Director/Vice President at Harper/Collins.
Designer Matteo Bologna, born in Milano, founded Mucca Design.


Steve Holmes and Bo Nieelsen developed and created the Worlds at Play website and animations using Adobe After Effects, Live Motion, Go Live, Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign software.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Time Breaks Mold in Redesign

"This week Time magazine will introduce its most-sweeping redesign in 15 years - an overhaul that includes four new sections, a smaller cover logo and retro-70's-era headlines inside." By Keith J. Kelly
New York Post


TIME launches the first issue of a major redesign developed by Pentagram’s Luke Hayman with TIME managing editor Richard Stengel and art director Arthur Hochstein.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

de Stijl aesthetic and Neo-Plasticism

"De Stijl, New Media, and the Lessons of Geometry

In 1915 and 1916, theosophist M. H. J. Schoenmaekers published “The New Image of the World” and “Principles of Plastic Mathematics.” Suggesting that reality might best be expressed as a series of opposing forces—a formal polarity of horizontal and vertical axes and a juxtaposition of primary colors—the author posited a new image of the world, expressed with “a controllable precision, a conscious penetration of reality and exact beauty.” Read the article

Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture

by Jessica Helfland

Neo-Plasticism

de Stijl

The Bridge

The Passion
Glue, Inc. began in 2005 with a fundraiser inspired by the thousands of Africans living in Nkhoma, Malawi, who are both directly and indirectly affected by poverty, the drought and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The 2005 Hurricane Katrina relief effort showed evidence that people are willing to reach out and stretch their own funds when the need was brought closer to home. The challenge was to get people to care about those in need who are far removed from their daily lives. The solution was creating a party with a purpose to draw them in, inspire conversation, and provide a starting place for a much bigger community based on caring.

The Purpose

Accelerating the shift from “ME” to “WE”.

thegluenetwork.com is on a mission to provide a network, a venue, the technology, the credibility, the content and the choices to enable individuals, causes and corporations to plug in, connect, act and make a difference. Simply put, the mission is to connect people to make a difference.

Make a difference

Saturday, March 17, 2007

New Project: Looking for ideas 2

"Yanko Design is a weblog dedicated to featuring modern international design news, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, architecture, exhibition and fashion."

Take a look and "Be Inspired"

Friday, March 16, 2007

STEP's Best of Web 2007

Call for entries

DEADLINE: April 2, 2007

Enter your great web designs in STEP’s Best of Web Design Competition sponsored by Jupiterimages Unlimited and get the recognition you deserve. Winners will be interviewed and prominently featured in the Best of Web Annual [September|October 2007 issue].

Enter your ...
• Entire Website
• Web Advertising [web banners, pop-ups, etc.]
• Motion Graphics

... in these categories
• Business
• Consumer
• Self-promotion
• Nonprofit | Public Service

Judges:
HILLMAN CURTIS, hillmancurtis.com, New York City
KELLY GOTO, gotomedia, San Francisco
JOE PEMBERTON, Punchcut, San Francisco

www.stepinsidedesign.com/bestofweb

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Contribute to JPG Magazine

There are 20 days left to contribute to issue 10. Published photographers
will get $100, a 1 year subscription to JPG Magazine, and other special
prizes!

Entropy: http://jpgmag.com/themes/4
Breakthrough: http://jpgmag.com/themes/35
Beauty Redefined: http://jpgmag.com/themes/37

About Reverb

"Born from the success of the “Green Highway” concept created by musician/activist Bonnie Raitt and manager Kathy Kane in 2002, Reverb has recently toured with Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Jack Johnson, Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, Guster, O.A.R., Ray LaMontagne and more."
" Green Highway links touring bands and their audiences to environmental issues and organizations via an interactive eco-village on site at each concert, while simultaneously “greening” the tour by coordinating biodiesel fill-ups in the tour busses, powering the concerts with renewable energy, and setting up recycling programs at the venues. View photos of the Green Highway on tour."

Read more
Music Matters

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

DESIGN 21: Social Design Network

"DESIGN 21: Social Design Network is where members of the design community, socially conscious individuals, local governments, businesses and non-profit organizations (NPOs) can address social concerns and create smart solutions through design. It's a place where like-minded people can connect to share resources, inspire each other and take action.
In partnership with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), we seek to explore the relationship between design and society. We believe that design should be more than an aesthetic exercise; that the real beauty lies in its potential to improve the way that we live and interact in our communities and our environment."

Monday, March 12, 2007

What is Sustainable Design?

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland in her 1987 report, Our Common Future

"The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design is dedicated to providing designers with a wide range of information regarding sustainable business practice. Through case studies, interviews, resources and discourse, this site will encourage and support designers as they incorporate sustainable thinking into their professional lives."

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Jonathan Yuen: Experimental Portfolio

Take a look at this personal project by Singapore-based graphic designer Jonathan Yuen inspired by East Asian ink and wash painting.
Jonathan Yuen portfolio

"What is your philosophy, in life and design?
In design, that is my little pet question. I would hope it is possible to touch someone's heart with design. " Stefan Sagmeister for Monument magazine

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Typographic Illustration

"The four pieces below are new projects created using the Typographic Illustration technique. Although unrelated in content and developed at different times, they are presented together to illustrate new applications of a previously developed tool."

Read more

Friday, March 9, 2007

Global Mobile Awards 2007

GSMA 2007, Global Mobile Awards Winners Announced: Samsung D900 wins best GSM mobile handset
The Samsung D900 has been voted best handset at 3GSM in Barcelona. One of the reasons it was selected was as a result of the unique Living World interface developed by Lightmaker.
Read Case Study

Global Mobile Awards 2007

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Dynamic identities

The new corporate logo: Dynamic and changeable are all the rage.
An article by Alice Rawsthorn, International Herald Tribune

"Dynamic identities fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that consistency is essential to an effective corporate identity. The more we see the same corporate symbol — or so the consistency camp argues — the more likely we'll be to recognize and remember it. Companies adhered to this throughout the 20th century; and the designers of some of the most successful identities, such as Jan Tschichold at Penguin Books in the late 1940s, and Paul Rand as a consultant to IBM from the 1950s to the early 1990s, were renowned for their rigor."

Read the article
Slide Show

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

New Project: Looking for ideas?

"TreeHugger is a fast-growing web magazine, dedicated to everything that has a modern aesthetic yet is environmentally responsible. Our goal is to make sustainability mainstream and to be the one-stop for the environment. If you want doom & gloom, this is not the place. We are looking for solutions, constructive developments and positive initiatives."

Read more...

NAU: Not just another outdoor company
Does the world need another outdoor clothing company? We asked ourselves that before launching another brand into a world already overflowing with consumer goods."

Learn more about Nau...

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

TED: Technology, Entertainment and Design

"TED is an event like no other. It brings together more than 1000 thought-leaders, movers and shakers in Monterey, California every year for four days of learning, laughter and inspiration."

"The past few TEDs have each had a broad content theme:"The Pursuit of Happiness", "Inspired by Nature", "The Future We Will Create."

TED2007 will be different. Instead of a subject-matter theme, we are simply going to put on stage FIFTY REMARKABLE PEOPLE... ...and let them share whatever it is they are passionate about."

Dates: March 7-10, 2007
Location: Monterey Conference Center - One Portola Plaza, Monterey, CA
Read more...

Monday, March 5, 2007

Japanese Digital Arts

JAPANESE YOUNG ARTISTS BOOK FAIR
March 4th - 24th, 2007

"New York / Tokyo - PEPPER'S PROJECT, a Tokyo-based gallery and art project, is pleased to present a JAPANESE YOUNG ARTISTS BOOK FAIR, the first fair of contemporary artists' books offered for sale by over 100 Japanese Young Artists. It will include wide range of handmade books such as comics, graphic books, photography books, poetry books, art object books and many others."

Read more...

Asia Digital Arts Award

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Helvetica celebrates its fiftieth birthday

"Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives."
Read more ...

AIGA New York premiere of "Helvetica," a full-length documentary by Gary Hustwit.

Friday, March 2, 2007

John Maeda and The Laws of Simplicity

"This site is devoted to my ongoing thought processes regarding the topic of simplicity. I wrote and designed a book entitled The Laws of Simplicity to let the ideas take root."
Laws: Reduce, Organize, Time, Learn, Differences, Context, Emotion, Trust, Failure, The One

The Laws of Simplicity" by John Maeda, world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab, and is a founding voicefor “simplicity” in the digital age.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Torre Agbar: Bioclimactic Architecture

"Inspired by the architectural legacy left behind by Gaudi and by the hills of Montserrat, the Agbar Tower rises from the ground with the power and lightness of a geyser, touching the blue skies of Barcelona."

Read more...