The power of design

Non-designers so often think of design as “decorating”. We designers strive to help them understand otherwise.
A wonderful example of how design can change lives appeared this morning in the L.A. Times. The big story is one about architecture and the challenges of designing for the homeless.
But there’s a smaller article, too.

Rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated

You know, newspapers seem to have been “dying” for a long time now.
But imagine you had never heard of a newspaper and somebody told you they’d invented a news medium that:

Was delivered to you automatically every morning
Had a giant, crisp, easy to read display — even for small type and detailed graphics
Was completely portable
Included huge [...]

Altered Aussie reality

Keith Loutit won’t let people embed his videos in their blogs. I understand, but it’s worth the extra click-through to see this lovely little stop-motion film, Bathtub IV.
It looks like he shot live action as stop-motion, using tilt shift selective focus to make it look like a tiny miniature. It’s the opposite of how you’d [...]

GTDing back on the horse that threw you

There are few things as stressful as trying to get everything all done before you leave for vacation. Except perhaps coming back from one and trying to catch up with the hundreds of emails and dozens of projects you blissfully managed to forget about while you were away.
Thank God there’s Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders to [...]

Tom Cruise has nothing on these people

How close are we to the gesture-driven data of Minority Report, where computers interact so seamlessly with the experiences of our day-to-day lives that they become completely integral to the way one walks around in the developed world? Closer than you think.
If you haven’t yet seen Pattie Maes and Pranav Mystry’s presentation at TED, treat [...]

Big, hot fast food concept

April Fool’s joke? Apparently not.

Warning sought for burger the size of your head
Josh Kowalczyk, an intern with the West Michigan Whitecaps, in Comstock Park, Mich. poses for a photo March 24, 2009.
The $20 burger will feature a sesame-seed bun made from a pound of dough, five 1/3-pound beef patties, five slices of cheese, [...]