When I clicked on the link to the spare typed list of principles entitled “Publish Local” posted on Reference Library, I came upon some wonderful, processy illustrations of them, along with a PDF of print-and-tape-on-the-wall-worthy signs – sixteen in all, in beautiful black-on-white type. At least the first twelve principles are reminders of a great path to bringing an idea into the world. If you tacked them around the walls of your workspace or office, you’d be sure to bring your idea to fruition, all the while keeping faith in your project. read more…
media
GOOD’s video contest: enter your world-changing idea
GOOD is at once magazine, website, blog, video series, community, and events devoted to exploring what good is and what it can be. A collaboration of individuals, business and non-profits, they invite everyone to become of a member of the GOOD community: “Please join us in defining what comes next.” (The subscription price for their magazine is whatever you choose to pay, which Good will donate to the non-profit of your choice. That is putting your money where your mouth is!))
Their latest project (in league with Babelgum) is asking artists, inventors, and thinkers one simple question: If there werent any pesky practical limitations, what world-changing device would you invent? read more…
(re)thinking fax cover sheets

Designer Abby Clawson, creator of interesting Hi & Low blog, devised a series of playful, big-relief-from-the-usual- fax cover sheets. She made them in response to an exhibit called “FAX” that she saw at the Drawing Center in New York City; artists, designers, thinkers, film makers were asked to conceive of the fax machine as a drawing tool (unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be viewable online). It looks like they could be done by with pretty ordinary tools: read more…
make your own music

I am blown away by Andre Michelle’s awesome visual music synthesizer, an instant d-i-y way for anybody to make charming syncopated Steve Reich-ish music that repeats endlessly. The more boxes you touch with your cursor, the more complex the tune becomes. If you get tired of a tune, continue to build it, listening as it evolves.
The synthesizer is the antidote to the workmen hammering outside my office window, providing a gorgeous meditative background sound that, along with ear plugs, blocks out the pounding on walls going on around me, and is perfectly conducive to working.
This is going on my bookmarks bar.
via The Daily Dish
a kids’ drawing program for adults
Bob Staake, creator of the charming children’s book Donut Chef and dozens of New Yorker cartoons, draws with a mouse using an ancient version of Photoshop. This video speaks volumes about the virtues, and humanity, of computer-generated art, and how fluid the process can be, once you loosen your head up (which this video will do). It instantly had me yearning for an accessible, fun drawing program. read more…
magazine pages as envelopes

Pamela Hovland, the extraordinary designer who has been so essential to the design for The Improvised Life, often uses pages from magazines as her envelopes. Periodically, she culls compelling images from magazines, cuts them out with an Exacto knife and straight edge (or just rips them out, leaving a pleasingly rough edge), and folds each one into thirds to make an “envelope”. She inserts her letter inside and seals the edges with a bit of tape, or an adhesive seal. A self-stick address label provides a white space for the address. read more…
rethinking business cards

Shouldn’t a business card reflect/echo/transmit a sense of the business or person it’s representing?
If you’re in thinking of (re)designing your card, check out the outside-the-box business card that [Re]Encoded.com compiled. They are FUN and make your expectations shift instantly. read more…









