This was a busy weekend. We had visitors from out of town (you can see Bill getting some love from Harper to the left. Our dogs love beards) a belated family Christmas, and freelance work. Thursday I found out I was going to be teaching a class at Tri-C on beginning web publishing, so I’ve […]

If you can’t afford an Eames chair, perhaps you can afford some stamps.
Every web person has worked someplace where a non-web savvy boss has said “I am right, the entire industry is wrong.”
Is Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant fame a plagiarist? I haven’t formed a definitive opinion yet, but I do believe if you […]

The AIGA Lecture Series presents Debbie Millman tonight at 6pm. From the AIGA site, Debbie will be discussing:
Why We Buy Things: A historical look at branding ourselves, the world around us, and how it influences the products we buy and why we live the way we do.
For more details, including the address visit the AIGA […]

The last place I would want to be in relation to a shark.
Faceball. Office sports, involving hitting people in the face with objects.
New identity for the New York City Ballet.
My favorite new music blog, all about indie pop and twee.
iKlimt, a flash site all about the life of Gustav Klimt.
Functioning Form’s 2007 retrospective.
Detroit’s […]

Photo-documenting the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. I particularly like the sign, “Whenever you are, we’re already then.”
Jonathan Snook on getting started with the Adobe Air Framework. This is a great article for any web designer interested in building their first desktop application with mostly familiar technologies.
The lo fi illustration of Damien Correll. […]

Every time I watch a movie or TV I find myself scrutinizing the technology, in some cases to the point where it prevents me from enjoying the show. I could never watch a complete episode of CSI, I think a vein in my forehead would burst. Fake science is a huge peeve of mine. It […]

23 Songs That Should Never Be Covered Again from the Onion. Cosigned.
A great visual reference, every cover of No Depression magazine.
Cleveland Web Association’s State of the Web 2008. Not sure if I’ll be attending or not, haven’t heard many positive things about this organization, and the description is pretty vague marketing copy.
24 Ways […]

Portfolio.com has an article on the illustration of wine labels.
Graph Paper mugs? Do want!
Project83 on why they ask clients for a budget. Amen!
The service Project83 offers is absolutely unique, which makes it difficult to compare with another company solely based on price. Diamonds have the 4 C’s, cut, color, clarity and carat weight. Project83 has […]

20 Horrible Habits of Clients. Every designer has probably experienced what’s on this list. It’s unfair to constantly blame clients. We fault clients for our own inabilities to say no, explain our expertise or communicate with them. Additionally, most of the things on this list I’ve experienced doing in-house work, so it’s not just […]

10 Absolute “Nos” for Freelancers.
The Email Standards Project. There’s some great people behind this, I’m excited to see what’s coming. (via)
Where Are All the Women Artists at MoMA? Guerrilla Girls anyone?
Great photography from Jill Greenberg.
40+ Excellent Free Fonts for Professional Design. One might argue if you won’t pay for type you’re not […]

While listening to Andy Rutledge’s 5th podcast, the weekend before last, a line near the end made me pause and rewind.

I suggest that if you cannot recognize and acknowledge that purpose in life can only be derived from God, by whatever name you call him, then I’m afraid you do not grasp what “purpose” […]

Since I work for the world’s largest greeting company, just buying a card is kind of a cop out. I’ve been really interested in information design lately, so my ideas and style were supremely influenced by this guy. Here’s the card I made Alana for her birthday, which was yesterday. (Click on the card to […]

Data visualization as show reviews. (via)

I was flipping through Monoscope the other day and it reminded me to write about the Bang Olufsen Beogram Turntable. Pictured to the left is the Beogram TX 2 from 1985.
The Beogram turntable was first designed in 1972 by Scandinavian industrial design superstar, Jakob Jensen. In a time where technology is dated about a week […]

The iPhone Human Interface Guidelines have been posted by Apple. Probably the most interesting read you’ll have all week. Most of the principles covered are applicable to any sort of interface design.
You can’t assume that users have the time (or can spare the attention) to figure out how your content works. Therefore, you should […]

CS3 and Leopard might not be compatible, or buggy at best. Great, guess I’ll be holding off on the initial release of Leopard.

My favorite article from A Brief Message so far. There’s a great quote from Henry Ford.
If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

Alana bought the new issue of Lemon Magazine the other day. Though it only seems to appear in our local Borders once in a blue moon, it’s always worth every penny. You can’t really tell from the small cover image here, but there’s a pattern embossed over the top. It’s kind of waxy, and gives […]

I keep learning this lesson the hard way. I just got my business cards back from Jakprints, and they look like ass. The blame lies with me, however, because I was in such a rush I opted for the digital proofs. There is no way for a printer to simulate exactly what your job will […]

Some college officials are trying to create a design district in Cleveland. While I think this is a fantastic idea, I don’t know how well such a thing would pan out. A lot of great designers have come from Cleveland, (Michael Beirut anyone?) agencies are springing up everywhere, and a lot of interesting design is […]

So I finished these up a few weeks ago and am pretty pleased with the results. The photo isn’t the greatest because I was using our older digital camera and the flash. Next time though I’ll definitely order the physical proof instead of getting just the digital, as there won’t be any time constraints. I didn’t notice when I opened the proofs that they cropped out my 1/8″white border on the text side of the card. I mistakenly thought Preview was zoomed in. Now the lower type comes a little closer to the bottom than I’d like. This is what happens when you don’t check your proofs carefully, so that’s my fault.