Paper Furniture
by Antonio Suarez
Molo Design is an award winning design and manufacturing company based in Vancouver that creates interesting and unique products.
Amazing Business Card
by Shalinder Matharu
This business card idea is great. What a fantastic way to keep the attention of a prospective employer. Link
Typography Final
by Shalinder Matharu
Hiroshige Specimen Sheet from Shal on Vimeo.
826
by Aaron Bell
Some of you may have heard of a quarterly literary journal called Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, or simply, “McSweeney’s.” It is a bit of an unusual one too. The first issue printed only pieces that had been rejected by other publishing houses. From there, there have been many other odd creations! I particularly remember one which was about riding a rollercoaster and consisted of several paged of “eeeeeee” and “aaaaaaaaah.” Quite brilliant.
In any case, the man who runs McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers, is also in charge of a non-profit called, 826 National, which is “dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing.” To achieve this goal, they offer “tutoring, field trips, workshops, and in-schools programs” all totally free to students and schools who need their assistance.
Now, the reason why I bring this up is part of how they pay for all this; through themed stores. Namely, a Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco (the original), a Superhero Supply Store in Brooklyn, a Spy Supply Store in Chicago, a Space Travel Supply Store in Seattle, a Monster Union (much smaller store) in Michigan, and finally a Cryptozoology (the study of creatures that may not be real) store in Boston. The Boston store is not quite open yet, but the 826 location is already running.
Each of these stores is brilliantly designed, down to the last detail. A case in point is that of 826LA, a Time Traveller themed store that opened just last year. Here are two of the “unique” products they sell:
After all that exposition, I would like to point you to the blog of the designer for the Time Traveller store, Stefan F. Bucher, who wrote a fun piece about his involvement. There are tons more pictures to enjoy too!
For those of you who haven’t had the chance, be sure to try and get to one of these stores! I visited the one in San Francisco and simply loved it (well, I like pirates too^^), but all of them look to be a blast. Check them out!
Firefox T-Shirt Contest
by Shalinder Matharu
Who doesn’t love Firefox? Well, here’s your chance to have your love spread across the chests of millions, no….BILLIONS of people.
The Organic Web
by Tyler Egeto
Hello fellow DD’s,
I would like to invite you to checkout and be apart of my final project titled “the Organic Web.” Here is a brief explanation of the theory behind the project.
“An Organic Information Visualization System is a system that aims to improve the typical experience on the internet. It has been developed by looking at that complex world we live in, studying the way information is presented to us daily on a subconscious level, and applying it to information visualization on the web. Its origins exist in the cells of living organisms, where life grows and decays, where its colour or size might tell us about its health or age. And where its skeleton will leave a story of what was.
In an Organic Information Visualization System there are two key factors that separate it from others systems. Those two things are, change over time, and user effected environments. The environment, referring to the space where the information is represented, is created with a set of rules. These rules are similar to the laws of nature. What lives must eventually die, every action has a reaction, and there for an effect on the environment.
What this means is that the actual site should change with the passage of time and as users interact with it. In essence it should exist as a living organism. Data should all be created with equal visual presence, and let a ratio between age and user activity to determine the visual presence within the site’s structure. Content that receives more activity from users should appear healthier and more prominent within the structure, while data with little activity should lose presence over time. As long as the environment exists this evolution should take place. The result therefore is unpredictable, but completely logical.”
I am still working on some optimization and content for the site, but feel free to check it out here
-Tyler Egeto
Have you ever eaten fermented pumpkins?
by Iván Cruz
Here’s example of a message being well communicated without the need of fancy design. The timing and content of the titles at the beginning of this little home-made video are great; they just gets the message across.
Almost two million views and counting. Courtesy of Jadyn and myself.
Webdesigning with grids
by Nicolas Alexander
The Web designer wall just posted a collection of 32 websites designed with grid layouts. it’s worth checking out for people into interface design. Editorial sites, blog design, column based layouts. check it out here
