Diagramming Sentences

These diagrams are from a recent post over at The Opinionator about the curious art of diagramming sentences, invented 165 years ago by S.W. Clark.

(via @bobulate)

Stem / Citrus Spritzer

Stem, released yesterday, is a citrus spritzer designed and developed by Quirky’s online community. It enables you to evenly spray juice directly from a citrus fruit. This just seems too good to be true. Really, this things works?

Stem, $4.99

The Tyranny of The New Yorker Magazine

Yuzi Zalkow talks about the burden of The New Yorker magazine. And the guilt associated with not reading them as thoroughly as one should.

(via explore)

Quarrels

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.
- Andre Gide

(via quoteland)

Vintage 3-D GIFs

The New York Public Library has created a tool they’re calling the Stereogranimator that lets users create animated 3-D GIFs from the photos in the archive. Here’s an example. Amazing.

(via murketing)

♥ / The Manual

A big thank you to The Manual for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed!

The Manual is a beautifully crafted journal with a focus on designing for the web and who we are as designers. The Manual is not about tutorials, tips, tricks or trends, but rather — through six illustrated articles and six personal lessons — aims to give a home to deeper explorations of our work through stories around the why of web design.

To date The Manual has published contributions from the likes of Frank Chimero, Liz Danzico, Mark Boulton, Karen McGrane, Ethan Marcotte, Duane King, Jeremy Keith, and more.

The Manual: the missing journal of web design.


(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)

Stay consistent…

Stay consistent in your beginnings and your endings. Have a great 2012. Lovely poster by PupilPeople.

TinyLetter


Mailchimp’s latest app, TinyLetter, makes it ridiculously easy to start your own mailing list and email newsletter. It’s a matter of minutes and you’re set to go. Pick a username and boom, you have your sign-up-page ready.

Mailchmp is fantastic service for maintaining business newsletters, but has too many bells and whistles for an individual that just wants to maintain a simple mailing list and send text email newsletter. That’s exactly what TinyLetter does best.

As Ben Chestnut, CEO of Mailchimp puts it: “You could think of TinyLetter as a “MailChimp Lite.” A more directionally accurate analogy would be, “Gmail on steroids.”

Read more about TinyLetter in this blog post.

Interested? Give TinyLetter a try yourself or subscribe to mine at: tinyletter.com/swissmiss

Wire Guy

Love this Wire Guy available over at CB2.

StudentShow

Hey design students, you might want to know that the fine folks over at Behance launched a site featuring student work from all around he globe: StudentShow.com! Fantastic way to find new talent!

(via @amritrichmond)

The Holstee Manifesto: Lifecycle video

My friends over at Holstee JUST released this fantastic video which celebrates cyclists through the lens of their manifesto. I got chills watching it. You?

Tree Stand

Now this is what I call a stylish (Christmas) Tree Stand.

Lighting Vest

The Lightning Vest is one of the coolest bike accessories I have seen in a while! It is a hand-netted, highly visible safety vest made from a custom developed 3M reflective material. It can be worn all year, day or night and layered over jackets or t-shirts. Neck opening is wide enough to pass over your helmet and netting is large enough for your hand to access your pockets. It is lightweight and compact enough to fit in your pocket without ever getting tangled. Brilliant? YES!

(via velojoy)

Nest

Visionary Tony Fadell who, back in the day, was in charge of the iPod at Apple *just* launched a brand new product called Nest. It’s a incredibly sexy looking thermostat that learns as you use it and, in the end, helps you save money.

10% of all U.S. energy is controlled by thermostats. That’s the equivalent of 1.7 billion barrels of oil per year. But in most homes the thermostat is an unassuming beige box. It doesn’t matter if it’s a manual or complicated programmable thermostat,we do with it what we’ve always done: get up, walk over to it, and change the temperature. Every few hours. Every day. 1,500 times a year.
We still try to save energy, of course. We turn down the thermostat when we can, we don’t set it too high or low. But we’re human. We forget. Until we see our energy bills.

That’s where Nest comes in. Smart. Hat tip off to Tony Fadell and his team. Learn more or Pre-Order.

BrooklynBeta

Most amazing conference badge I have ever seen. Hat tip!

My studiomates Chris and Cameron organized a sequel to last year’s BrooklynBeta Conference. And it is happening N-O-W! It seems as everyone in my Twitter stream has come to Brooklyn and is currently 3 blocks away from my apartment. (check out the attendees here)

The notion of BrooklynBeta is dear to my heart: Chris and Cameron believe that the more people who work on their own ideas, the better place the Web and the world will be. So they built a conference where developers and designers can meet and then hopefully team up on new projects.

My studiomates Chris, Cameron and Team Jessi have been working *hard* over the past few weeks and I am thrilled to be attending today.

Ok then, off to BrooklynBeta!

Be Optimistic (continued)

Thank you Olimpia for pointing me to this video. You’re right, this video goes well with my prior Be Optimistic Felt Badge I posted just a moment ago.

Once in a while…

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”
- Alan Keightley

(via Chris Guillebeau‘s email signature)

♥ / HOW Interactive Design Conference

A big thank you to HOW for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed!

This first-of-its-kind HOW Interactive Design Conference is tailor made for traditional designers transitioning to digital design, and is all about helping them learn the skills they need to grow in their creative careers. All sessions are headed up by an all-star roster of speakers, including Second Story’s Julie Beeler, expert Patrick McNeil, interactive-design guru Cameron Moll, Mark O’Brien of Newfangled, and frog design’s David Sherwin, and Matthew Richmond just to name a few.

This HOW conference is made for traditional designers looking to succeed in the digital design world. If you haven’t registered yet, you should take advantage of the early bird rate until September 30th.

www.howinteractiveconference.com, San Francisco, November 2-4, 2011


(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)

dConstruct 2011 Ticket Tombola

Authentic Jobs US, the job network I am a proud member of here in the US, is sponsoring dConstruct 2011, which has an outstanding lineup of speakers.

Authentic Jobs is giving away three free tickets to freelancers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to make it. Here’s how you can qualify for a ticket:

- You’re in the UK.
- You’re a self-employed freelancer who can’t quite afford to attend but would if you could.
- You can free yourself on 2nd of September to attend.

If you qualify, complete this simple form and AJ will be in touch if you’re selected.

This type of give-away makes me happy. Hat tip to Cameron Moll who is the brainchild behind Authentic Jobs.

Let’s Meet And Work

Let’s Meet and Work is a curated map of nice cafés, museums, libraries, etc that provide good working conditions for freelancers. At the moment it’s purely London based, but Alasdair Monk wants to expand it to NYC within the coming months. Yes, please!

UPDATE: Alasdair is taking recommendations for the NYC map.

(thank you Daniel)

Fauxgo (Fake Logo)

Fauxgo.com is a blog that archives fictional logos found in movies. Quite amusing!

(Thank you Tymn)

Suitcase Eyes



MUJI, the Japanese minimalist retail store, has created OJOKEESUS suitcase eyes that give your luggage a bit of character. Oh, Muji, I love you!

Katie Lewis

Katie Lewis collects data through daily documentation processes, and then generates numerous systems to allow the information to exist in a material form. She abstracts and quantifies the data and creates mesmerizing pieces of art.

(via this is colossal)

Pay Attention

“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
- Susan Sontag

(via Maria’s CreativeMornings talk)