Two weeks ago G, Ella and I checked out Cafe Moomah in Manhattan and we were impressed. It’s a beautifully designed space for children and their parents. It’s a cozy cafe and an art oasis for little ones. While G and I enjoyed yumme brunch with friends, Ella did a fun art project under the guidance of an art teacher. (She was able to pick from 7 different art projects, which cost around $14) Ella was in heaven, and so were we. I just checked out Moomah’s site and discovered this online collage builder and drawing tool which I can’t wait to show Ella tonight:
Add original art from the Threadless community of designers to smooth, sleek shells designed by Griffin and you’ve got one-of-a-kind cases for your iPhone.
My talented studio-mate Jessica Hische is part of the beautiful “The Newsprint Project“. For $10, you can buy a newspaper full of art from 15 different Brooklyn illustrators.
My friend and studio-mate Cameron Kozcon was so kind to write up some of the talks at this week’s Future of Webdesign Conference (FOWD) which unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend. Cameron was officially my first ’swissmiss field reporter’ and he did a fantastic job. Here’s his write up (Make sure to check out the individual Talk Stats!)
DAN CEDERHOLM | Progressive Enrichment with CSS3
Summary:You should enhance your sites with little niceties that only the modern browsers will see because it is nice for them, but other browsers won’t miss it. Some things you can do to enrich a site:
Style form elements
RGBa for simple color choices. Good for background textures.
Speaking of House Industries: If you happen to be in New York TODAY, swing by the House Industries Pop-up shop at the Type Directors Club to touch and feel both old and new Housewares in person. Click here for more info.
Printers Gavin Martin Associates wanted to promote their conversion to eco-friendly vegetable inks, and did so by creating a poster with a giant rabbit painstakingly created in carrots. Made me smile.
This minimalist watering can is made of 18-0 stainless steel and has a flexible silicone hose with a built-in magnet that allows it to be attached to the can’s body when not in use. Love it.
Flickr user insect54 has set up Autografik, a pool dedicated to graphic design applied to motor vehicles. With a focus on modernist corporate identities of the 60’s and 70’s. I love you internet!
Almost every novel I read makes me want to write, just as most cookbooks make me want to cook and many photography books inspire me to take photos. I have yet to come across any inspiring books on web design, though, and I suspect it’s because web designers don’t do as much pure design as the title implies. In other words, perhaps web design has failed to become an artistic medium and simply lacks the material to make an inspiring book.
So I wonder if web designers could become better designers if they emulated the Architect’s system of getting an engineer’s opinion only after his or her imagination has been inked on paper. That is, perhaps we should free ourselves from writing html and css as a profession. Such a strategy might have a better chance at reproducing the radical genius of Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, if only because web designers could stop handicapping themselves with their fascination with code and the limitations code implies.
Swissmiss is a design blog and studio run by Tina Roth Eisenberg, a 'swiss designer gone NYC'. Contact me if you have a design project, a link suggestion or just want to say hello.
