Anthony Kolber is a graphic designer who got frustrated with trying to customize Indexhibit for his friend’s portfolio sites. So he decided to create something to make it simpler, it’s a php app called Stacey.
Stacey’s aim is to make the customizing part easier. You edit html files as html, the installation consists of dropping files onto your server and content editing is handled by creating folders and putting images inside them. There is no ‘admin’ interface, it’s all done via basic ftp.
AIGA/NY is on fire! I just bought tickets to two events within 4 days of each other. First, Ji Lee’s presentation this thursday and then monday’s Dog and Pony Show at Galapagos in DUMBO. The line up of presenters is breath-taking:
The fabulous team at Atto made another nifty site called Artwiculate: The twitter-based Word of the Day competition helps clever people look clever and helps the rest of us learn new words. To play, just use today’s word in context in one of your tweets. That’s it. Your tweet will appear on the artwiculate.com site where people can tell you if they like it. You’ll get points if they like it or retweet it.
David Sykes is continuing his food series. His latest: Spaghetti Hoops. (the cheese is gym socks and towels) There are rumors he might do a limited run of prints. Yay!
Some of the most well known people I know never assume people they talk to know who they are. Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha, for example, introduces himself to me every time I see him, and asks if now is a good time to talk. I’ve known him since 2006, and it’s far from necessary. But I always appreciate how polite he is. Want to be like Roelof someday? A good start is basic business etiquette. Just because someone can’t register your face, name and workplace in less than the second it takes for you to say hello to them doesn’t mean they don’t want to help you out. Just help to avoid that awkward moment by giving them all the information they need. And then watch body language for your cue to wrap things up.
Excellent article by Michael Arrington on how good manners never go out of style: Greetings!
I seriously don’t know how my parents were ever able to take my sister and me to a restaurant and actually enjoy a meal without having a device like the iPhone at their fingertips. My iPhone is loaded up with educational fun games for Ella and I am happy to have discovered iStoryTime:
Aiming to provide a more enriching experience than simply playing with the buttons or watching movies, iStoryTime is a new iPhone application that’s designed to bring stories to life. iStoryTime’s self-navigating and self-narrating book application is designed for use even by two-year-olds, flipping the pages automatically while the child follows along. Kids can choose between two narrators—an adult or a child’s voice—or read the book on their own. In addition, the words to the story are included onscreen so beginning readers can make associations between what they hear and the words they see.
What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That’s a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics.
Smashing Magazine is running an interesting article on effective Twitter Backgrounds (Scroll down on their post for an impressive and inspiring collection of people’s custom backgrounds). Primary focus of their article is to explore various techniques to create unique, memorable and effective Twitter profile pages.
We Are The Friction is a book of illustration and short fiction created by 12 pairs of international writers and illustrators. It’s the second book edited, designed and published by Sing Statistics, the collaborative concern of Jez Burrows and Lizzy Stewart.
The book paired writers with illustrators, both established and emerging in their disciplines. Each then produced new work inspired by the work of their partner: stories from illustrations, and illustrations from stories. The result is an erratic, eclectic collection of work that takes in space travel, Japanese deities, monster husbandry, and the Marx Brothers.
In 10 Common Typography Mistakes Brian Hoff lists 10 common mistakes used in type design/layout that can make a large impact in the effectiveness and appearance of your designs, in addition to saving you time and money when dealing with printers.
Chris Glass did some ‘rhubarb’ wiki’ing and found these uncited tidbits about the stalky red vegetable:
It is or was common for a crowd of extras in acting to shout the word “rhubarb” repeatedly and in an unsynchronised manner, to cause the effect of general hubbub. As a result, the word “rhubarb” sometimes is used to mean “length of superfluous text in speaking or writing”, or a general term to refer to irrelevant chatter by chorus or extra actors. The American equivalent is walla. Stage actors in the United States also use word “rhubarb” repeated asynchronously in a low or murmured tone to provide background voice ambience in crowd or party scenes. A variation of this is the repetition of the phrase “peas and carrots”
- wiki : rhubarb
Osaka’s robot-run parking lots mixed with the Minneapolis lakefront; a musician’s fantasy metropolis. Article by David Byrne: A Talking Head Dreams of a Perfect City
“A city can’t be too small. Size guarantees anonymity—if you make an embarrassing mistake in a large city, and it’s not on the cover of the Post, you can probably try again. The generous attitude towards failure that big cities afford is invaluable—it’s how things get created. In a small town everyone knows about your failures, so you are more careful about what you might attempt. Every time I visit San Francisco I ask out loud “Why don’t I live here? Why do I choose to live in a place that is harder, tougher and, well, not as beautiful?” The locals often reply, “You don’t want to live here. It looks like a city, but it’s really a small village. Everyone knows what you’re doing” Oh, OK. If you say so. It’s still beautiful.”
Park(ing) Day is an international event that reclaims parking spots and transforms them into engaging, people-friendly public spaces for one day a year.
Park(ing) Day NYC is a New York City Streets Renaissance collaboration which supports the conversion of parking spots throughout New York City’s 5 boroughs into human-friendly places for a single day. These small, temporary public spaces provide a breath of relief from the auto-clogged reality of New York City, and aim to spark dialogue about our valuable public space and how we choose to use it.
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.
