DUMBO Underwater

DUMBO Underwater from Eric Corriel on Vimeo.

Inspired by issues relating to climate change, DUMBO Underwater imagines what it might feel like if sea levels rose to the point where parts of New York City found themselves underwater.

Most scientists agree that sea levels are rising and that coastal cities, such as Brooklyn, are at risk for flooding. This being the case, it is worth considering the possibility that New York City, or some of its parts, may one day be underwater. This site-specific video installation uses the idea of the East River overflowing in DUMBO to transform this possibility into an experience.

A little unsettling, isn’t it?

(via brainpicker)

Typeface Memory Game

The Typeface Memory Game is the perfect gift for the Typography obsessed. It includes 25 variations of the letter ‘A’, each in a different letter type.

Typographic information about the letter is included on the card, and a separate folder provides a general history of the typography. Among the letter types included in the game are Akzidenz Grotesk, Baskerville, Centaur, Garamond, Helvetica Rockwell, Times New Roman, Univers and many more.

(thank you Joanna)

CMYK Mighty Wallet

The Mighty Wallet™ is tear-resistant, water-resistant, expandable and, most importantly, recyclable. Made from Tyvek® (think express mail envelopes), the Mighty Wallet™ resists tearing because of thousands of interlocking plastic fibers spun in random patterns giving the wallet incredible strength. In time, the Mighty Wallet™ will gradually soften and patina but, even after years of wear, it will still offer surprise and solicit intrigue.

G has one and loves it. I have been looking for the right ‘decorative print’ and the CMYK version it is. Now, about to order one…

ps: The site I linked to is out of stock, but try the MoMAstore instead.

Handle Stool

This playful, colorful stool is made from spruce wood covered in felt. Made by TemaHome, available at MoMAStore. A beauty.

Kelli Anderson


So, I admit it, I am over portfolio sites. I can’t remember when I was last completely excited over seeing one. Until just now. Kelli Anderson emailed me and thanked me for blogging the Handkerchief Wedding Invitation Design a few weeks back. She pointed me to a blog post explaining the entire process. I then clicked to her portfolio site and clicked and clicked and clicked. I am impressed and am sending a big giant hat tip over to Kelli.

ps: Check out the Google Map inspired navigation on the homepage. Quite amusing!

Homemade Spacecraft

Luke Geissbuhler took this video from a camera attached to a weather balloon that rose into the upper stratosphere and recorded the blackness of space. Is this for real? (jaw drop)

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

(via brainpicker)

Measuring Influence Online

This FastCompany article tries to explain how one can measure influence in social media. As example they are using Bono vs LadyGaga. The article is based on a whitepaper by social media monitoring firm Vocus. What is the main quality of an influencer? Excerpts from the article:

The key finding here is that there is a clear difference between “influence” and “popularity.” About 90% of respondents noted this distinction; however, 84% also said there is a correlation between “reach” and influence,” which adds a bit of ambiguity.

According to the survey, the top contributing factors that make a person or brand influential were all based on quality rather than quantity. Around 60% of respondents cited the “quality or focus of the network” (e.g. 4chan) and 55% cited the “quality of content” (e.g. Andrew Sullivan) for what defines an influential.

But the most important metric for measuring one’s influence online is also the most disagreed upon. With social media, there are so many methods of quantifying “influence” that respondents were fragmented. Close to 29% of respondents said “action” is the most important measure of the effectiveness of social media influence; however, more than one-third also said “action” was the least important metric. The number of “views” was ranked highest by 11%, tied with “click-throughs.” “Retweets” and Facebook “Likes” came in last place.

Unfortunately, when it came to Lady Gaga versus Bono, Vocus didn’t offer an end-all decision.

We have been talking about this topic quite a bit here at the studio. The most interesting experience we’ve had is when an aquaintance of ours tweeted about TeuxDeux and we expected to get a HUGE wave of retweets and overall echo in the Tweetsphere, given that this person has close to 500,000 followers. Not much happened at all. BUT, we had another person from the web-industry tweet about it, and the response was impressive. This person’s tweet follower count: 60,000. There you have it: Quality over Quantity.

Journalism in the Age of Data

Journalism in the Age of Data from geoff mcghee on Vimeo.

If you have a spare hour, then feast your eyes on Geoff McGhee’s video documentary “Journalism in the Age of Data,” which explores the exciting potential and occasional pitfalls of modern data visualization.

(via GOOD)

Web Font Awards

The Web Font Awards is the first ceremony to celebrate the newfound typographic freedom that Web designers are experiencing across the globe. The competition will recognize the designers and websites that are putting this emerging technology to greatest use. Aimed at promoting Web font awareness and adoption, the Web Font Awards is open to eligible users of any Web font service or technology that uses an @font-face declaration.

www.webfontawards.com

(via behoff)

LosAngeles/CreativeMornings with Zach Frechette

I am happy to announce that LosAngeles/CreativeMornings will be kicked off next week. And I’ll make sure to be there for the occasion. West Coast, here I come!

My dear friend Jon Setzen who happened to have his studio one block over from me in Brooklyn and now is the CreativeDirector of SomethingMassive in LosAngeles, offered to run the west coast chapter. I couldn’t be more excited!

DATE
LosAngeles/CreativeMornings, October 8, 2010, 8.30am – 10am (rsvp will open up on wednesday, september 29, 2010 at 11am over at losangelescreativemornings.eventbrite.com. Space is limited and we will up quickly, so mark your calendars!

SPEAKER
We are thrilled (!) to have Zach Frechette of GOOD Magazine kicking off our LosAngeles/CreativeMornings chapter on October 8th, 2010.

Zach is one of the co-founders and the editor-in-chief of GOOD Magazine. He helped launch the magazine and has recently led the transition of GOOD from an editorially led magazine to a community-based web platform at the intersection of creativity and impact.
GOOD Magazine describes itself as “an integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. They are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.” We are incredibly excited to have Zach be our first ever speaker at LosAngeles/CreativeMornings. Please join us.

HOST
The event will be hosted at the Ford&Ching showroom in the historic Kim Sing Theatre in Chinatown. Ford&Ching creates an impressive link between emerging design, end users, people who specify, and people who love design. Not familiar with their space? Get ready for a real treat!

Tina (aka swissmiss) who started CreativeMornings two years ago in New York will be present for this first LosAngeles/CreativeMornings. (If time allows, we will organize some drinks the night before at some yet to be determined LA location.)

BREAKFAST SPONSOR
Breakfast will be generously sponsored by Something Massive a leading digital agency with offices in LA, NYC and Buenos Aires. They’re a full service agency offering digital strategies and engaging creative. Visit their site www.somethingmassive.com to learn more.

SIGN UP
You’ll be able to rsvp over at losangelescreativemornings.eventbrite.com starting wednesday september 29th, 2010 11am.

VOLUNTEERS
As we are kicking-off the LosAngeles chapter we are looking for volunteers. Would you be interested in assisting Jon Setzen running the LosAngeles/CreativeMornings chapter? For this particular event we are looking for folks that can help with taping and photographing the event. For upcoming events we need help finding sponsors, venues and speakers. Want to help? Email us.

Young me

My Swiss reader Karin just reminded me of the Young Me site. People reinact old photos of themselves. This one, with George the monkey is particulary adorable. The Ab Workout made me laugh out loud.

Ten Things | Milton Glaser

How did I never come across the Ten Things I have learned by Milton Glaser? Did I study Graphic Design under a rock? I must have.

(thank you savita)

Zurich/CreativeMornings with Dr.Peter Hogenkamp

After a fantastic first Zurich/CreativeMornings at Google Zurich with Ario Jafarzadeh talking about Priority Inbox, I am excited to announce our second Swiss chapter CreativeMorning with Dr.Peter Hogenkamp, head of digital at the NZZ Group.

The event will take place on October 8th, 2010 and will be generously hosted by supercool Cafe Casablanca (photo), in the heart of Zurich.

More info over at zurichcreativemornings.eventbrite.com. You will be able to add your name to the list starting monday October 4th, 11am. (Mark your calendars, we fill up quickly!)

A big thank you to Daniel Frei, who is running the Zurich chapter!

Watch the video of last months talk by Ario Jafarzadeh
Photos of last month’s event.
Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Twitter.

A big giant thank you to our breakfast sponsors Cafe Casablanca and Kalkbreite Optik. (YAY!)

Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Facebook.
Follow Zurich/CreativeMornings on Twitter.

The New Yorker iPad App

Hilarious. Brilliant. Funny. I want the app.

(Cameron, we have to step up our TeuxDeux Game!)

(thank you Jennifer!)

DeClutter

This is the tweet-wish I put out a few minutes ago: (I realize that 3rd party apps have the feature I am wishing for.)

Melanie De Vrieze had an interesting suggestion called DeClutter. It is a javascript bookmarklet which will remove from your timeline any tweets which match a “blacklist” of keywords you’ve defined.

About DeClutter: Once you’ve started following more than a handful of people, you’ll occasionally find your timeline filling up with tweets about things that you’re really not that interested in. You’d rather not take the nuclear option and unfollow those involved, as they generally have interesting/useful tweets. But equally you’d rather not have to scroll through 3 pages of automated tweets about foursquare checkins, app downloads and the like. DeClutter is a javascript bookmarklet which will remove from your timeline any tweets which match a “blacklist” of keywords you’ve defined. Below you can enter a series of terms which you want to banish from your timeline (one term per line). After entering them, you can either copy and paste the resulting javascript in to a bookmarklet in your browser, or drag the DeClutter link at the bottom of the page to your browser’s bookmarks bar. Once it has been saved, log on to twitter.com and click your new bookmarklet. Straight away you should see tweets disappearing from the timeline. This filter will re-apply itself automatically in the background every time you click “more”, “@ replies”, etc, so you don’t need to re-click the bookmarklet whenever your timeline is refreshed. This can lead to some odd behaviour, such as only 3-4 tweets appearing instead of 20 when you click “more”, or not additional tweets appearing when you click the blue “new tweets” bar. This means that tweets which have been loaded matched your filters, and have been removed without ever being displayed to you.

Has anyone of you tried DeClutter? What’s the verdict?

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

Definitely a new favorite on my long list of TED talks.

gridulator

Tell Gridulator your web-layout width and the number of columns you want, and it’ll spit back all the possible grids that have nice, round integers. Just the thing for pixel-based designfolk. There are inline previews, courtesy of the canvas element, and when you’re all set Gridulator can crank out full-size PNGs for you, ready for use in your CSS, Photoshop docs, or what have you. And there’s full keyboard control for you snazzy power users.

gridulator.com

(thank you zoya)

Retro Desk Calendar



A beauty of a vintage desk calendar from the 70s. It has a simple rolling mechanism for each day, date and month. The friendly shape surrounds a minimal black face with white uppercase helvetica letters and numbers. Text is in german. Wishlisted.

Bike Shelf


I think I need to start a new category, called Bike Porn. This post would definitely fall into that. How beautiful is that bike? And the shelf? Look at that shelf! (sigh)

(thank you Daniel)

Captain Vegetable

(via itsjustbrent)

What is good Design?

What is good design is one of these questions I am being asked constantly. The sheer complexity of the answer usually makes me break out in a nervous sweat. And so far, nobody nailed the answer better than Dieter Rams in his Ten Principles for Good Design.

What is your reference that you keep coming back to?

Contxts

We all know the scenario, you just got back from your gathering of professionals and you want to connect with all of the people that you met. So you pull out your stack of cards and you go through your social network of choice searching for each one by one. Or, you were at an event and ran out of cards, or forgot them, which happens a lot to me. Fear no longer, Contxts is here to help!

Instead of giving your new friend your printed business card how about you, save a tree and, txt them your virtual one. This action automatically places them in your online contact list and if they have a profile on contxts.com you both are connected. There are two ways to connect with another person. Regardless of whether they have a profile on contxts or not you can exchange your credentials.

From your phone, you txt “send 3034759204” to 50500 (where 3034759204 is your recipients 10 digit number): Your recipient will receive all of your contact information.

Or

Your contact txts “username” to 50500 on their phone: You will receive a request confirmation (unless you have it turned off). Upon accepting, your contact will receive your information.

Your txt business card is not just an exchange of credentials. It’s also a request to connect profiles through our network. Each and every contact that you make is added to your virtual rolodex. From here you get access to whatever additional information they provide (flickr, twitter, linked-in).If the person that you are connecting with doesn’t have a profile yet – no problem. When they do create a profile all of their information in your rolodex is automatically updated.

Want to give it a try? Get my info by texting SWISSMISS to 50500.

(via jason santa maria)

Writer for iPad

Whenever fellow Swiss Oliver Reichenstein comes out with a new product/service/site I pay attention. Given that Oliver is a smart young man and obviously works with a talented bunch over at iA, I am quite excited about using Writer for iPad. I yet have to extensively play around with it, but I am liking their approach and concept.

Read their story about the Writer of iPad.

Digital Tools helping in going Paperless

Based on my question from two days ago, I would like take the conversation a step further by asking the following:

What tools do you use (or know of) that help us in the quest to go digital and say goodbye to paper?

Here are some of the ones I use on a daily basis:

JotNot iPhone App, basically a scanner in your pocket. Email your photos as a PDF, back them up with various different services like Evernote or fax them. Fantastic app, highly recommend it to turn that receipt, that you might otherwise lose, into a pdf and store it in your files.

Don’t own one yet, but it’s on my wishlist: Neat Receipts Scanner and Filing Software.

Online based Project Management Tool Basecamp keeps me from printing out documents, knowing they are all up there in the cloud, always accessible.

Dropbox. Best $10 I spend every month. All my files, always synced on my various computers, at all times. As well always accessible on my iPhone and iPad. I have all my files on me at all times, at a click of a button. No need to print anything. Ever.

Google Docs. I used to bring a print out of my Class Rooster to class every week to keep track of attending students. No longer. I now log onto my Google Docs account while in class, check the boxes and save. Voila. Done.

What services do you use? Or dream of? What services does your company use to help you go digital?