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DesignNotes by Michael Surtees
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another side of design Podcasts to check out  While most things these days are in slow down mode, one thing that isn’t is podcasts. I received an encouraging email that my favourite design podcast Design Matters is starting season five this Friday (January 9th, 2009). With that in mind I thought I would collect a number of other new podcasts that I’ve been enjoying. And if you have an iPhone don’t forget you can download them straight from your phone now.DESIGN MATTERSWebsite: http://debbiemillman.blogspot.comiTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=82012542The depth and number of designers and other cultured people Debbie has talked with is pretty amazing. She should really have her entire series transcribed and put into a book. Aside from being able to downloading them from iTunes you can also listen to them streamed online. I’m particularly fond of this episode from 04.01.05 though I find it hard for me to listen to.THE MONOCLE WEEKLYWebsite: www.monocle.com/The-Monocle-WeeklyiTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=300684061Updated Sunday evenings, I’m preferring the podcast to the magazine. There’s only been two episodes so far but the conversation is smart and my litmus test is time, if I wish each episode was longer then we have a winner – currently they’re thirty minutes which isn’t long enough.PLANET MONEYWebsite: www.npr.org/blogs/money/iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=290783428I can’t think of a more relevant podcast to listen to these days. In the past if a person didn’t have some skilled education in money matters they’d find business shows to be kind of irrelevant. This is anything but boring, it’s extremely listenable and current.SPARKWebsite: www.cbc.ca/sparkiTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=263242885I’m pretty sure every time that I’ve mentioned podcasts Spark comes up. Again it’s fairly relevant culture stuff with a slight nod towards technology and design. They probably have the best system for pulling out content and posting it on their website. It’s a really good case study to see how to transfer audio content on to the web. The only negative is that their archived is almost impossible to use – there’s no previous button at the bottom of the page. I’ve been told that this is going to be fixed… Posted on Jan 08.09 to Design, Podcast | View comments on Football and Chess (and design)  A couple days ago I came across a great twitter comment from Geoff Manaugh of bldgblog in which he mentions “Football as a series of contradictory landscape strategies: analytic geometry. Competing ways of using a nd filling space.” I’m a fan of both North American football and soccer which I thought was apt for both sports. Then yesterday I came across another analogy, this time it was about chess and Bobby Fischer’s eulogy via Jason Kottke. Michael Paterniti wrote “This was the beauty of Bobby Fischer’s mind, even then. The boy made very clean, simple lines out of very complex problems, and when the trap was sprung, his style of chess became so transparent you could instantly recognize its brilliance: efficient, organic, wildly responsive and creative.”I like combining stuff to see what I get, especially with quotes like above. Both of those excerpts are relatable to not only their respective sports but to the bigger picture of design from my pov. If you can follow me for a sec I’ll explain why. In Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design (Interactive Technologies) by Bill Buxton, he describes trigonometry (something that is fundamental to navigation) “more often than not they recast the problem in a different representation that simply side-steps the need for the task to be done”. In football it’s about moving ideas from point A to B by dealing with challenges, while in chess as Fischer illustrated, turning a complex process into something that was simple in it’s brilliance. Isn’t that what design is about? Posted on Jan 07.09 to Blogs, Books, Design, Information Design, Interaction Design, Quotes, UX, Quote | View comments Will barcodes cease to exist?      After my less than great experience trying to create and decode some QR codes from a past post on my iPhone I had all but given up on grabbing info via a lens and converting that into meaningful information. Sure there was Shazam that could identify music but I’ve never felt the need to use it much. I figured if there was a song on tv I probably didn’t want to know who sang it anyways and most of my music is streamed online so I tend to know who it is. But it’s still cool app. And then I was tipped off to an even cooler app from Callie Neylan when she visited NYC over the weekend. She mentioned SnapTell which allows an iPhone user to take a picture of book, dvd or video game cover and convert that info into something you can save and if you want – purchase online. The fact that there’s an app that can do just that is pretty convenient, but the online info about prices and searches it can do afterwards is pretty dangerous. It’s insanely easy to buy stuff.I don’t know if there’s already a term out there for those type of ambient search grabs – but if there is please let me know. While I was shooting books I wondered that if an app can grab that type of info, what’s the need for barcodes? Now if only there was a wine app to grab detailed label info we’d be set. Posted on Jan 06.09 to Design, Interaction Design, iPhone, app | View comments More of Britain from Above A couple months ago I came across Britain from Above but was disappointed that I couldn’t see any of the videos b/c I didn’t live in Britain. While I still can’t see them all, the above YouTube clips give a glimpse at some pretty cool things. Via Flowing Data’s 5 Best Data Visualization Projects of the Year. Posted on Jan 05.09 to Culture, Design, Video, Diagrams, YouTube | View comments My month of Fresh Signals inside Coudal Partners (December 2008)  For the past month I’ve been adding sites (and commentary) to Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals under the name MST. I have to admit that I did feel a bit of pressure to submit as their audience is pretty big and discerning. I tried to keep the same mantra that I use for my own Link Drops which is to present stuff that I find interesting that’s just slightly outside the norm for a design blog. The only difference being for Fresh Signals was that I put out a reason d’etre with each link so it had some context. While posting there I decided to leave those links out of my own Link Drop so I could do this post which collected them all. As always I was curious to see how the links would fit together organically afterwards. And as I mentioned with my final link, thank you Steve and Coudal Partners for the opportunity of dropping some stuff.Wednesday December 3rdHow hard could it be to recount ballots? Apparently not as easy as it sounds as Minnesota Public radio has shown with examples. Plus you can vote for what you think the voter’s intent was. Via Graphpaper.There’s at least 25 ways to blog, and to think I thought there was only one way. Thursday December 4thIt’s not the first greatest hits of 2008 list and it definitely won’t be the last, but here’s a review of Last.fm’s ‘Best of 2008′.Friday December 5thWe all know where the Sea Pirates are now, but how about a real time emergency and disaster map?Monday December 8thFrom one of the most iconic photos of the Great Depression (Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange), one of the children reminisces about how her Mom felt about having the image taken. Via design:relatedPirates vs. Ninjas: Who would win? Google has figured it out.This green light is actually a lantern.Tuesday December 9thThis time lapse video of Antarctica is quite smooth. Via Blake Whitman.A lot of fixed gear goodness.Wednesday December 10thThe Evolution of Game Controllers in diagram form. Three posts that I think should be required reading if you’re looking for some context about the death of print (or how information is flowing today, and it’s not from paper) 1. The Newspaper Industry and the Arrival of the Glaciers, 2. Content and Its Discontents, and 3. Change Happens. Thursday December 11thThe humming blog post. Friday December 12thFor the pet that doesn’t know how to float there’s the illuminated inflatable pet collar.Perhaps you’re curious about physical computing - here’s the start of a site from some smart folksMonday December 15thIf you ever visit Portland and it snows stay off the roads as this video shows real life bumper car action. The sound effects are a nice touch. Via WK30 Ways to Die of Electrocution, the flickr set from bre pettis.Tuesday December 16thIs Web Design 95% Typography?Learn how to save Grandpa’s life and more with your iPhone over the holidays with 10 iPhone Apps you might not know about.Wednesday December 16thLet’s get meta on 2008 - The List of ListsLearning about Mountain DesignThursday December 18thThere’s an amazing pdf of people’s design process’ collected by Hugh Dubberly at [Beta] How do you design? Via eightface.comFriday December 19thHey look, it’s the Alphabet Truck!Tuesday December 23rd, 2008One idea a minute for 27 minutes…Nice to see how dogs, band names and gig posters can work hand in hand as Dog Art Today proves. Via FitaCola.December 30th, 2008I’ll never look at ppt. in the same way after watching this. Via superlocal.January 2nd, 2009Sadly this is the last of my quick link drops for Fresh Signals, thanks Steve and Coudal Partners for letting me try some things out. Photo: Untitled. Via Chris Glass. Posted on Jan 05.09 to Blogs, Design, Misc., Link Drop | View comments Link Drop for the Week Ending in Friday the 2nd (January 2009)  ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………For the first Link Drop of twothousandnine I thought I’d change the format up. Bigger screen shot of the link, title and text below the image. That update should fix some of the issues pc people have had in the past trying to read Link Drops. If you found this week you were clicking more or less, liking it or hating the different format please let me know. I’m always curious for that kind of feedback.This time of year allows for lots of “best of” lists so you’ll find some of those this week. There’s a couple sites that have to do w/ Starbucks and the CBC has a couple entries. End of year wrap ups also tend to offer advice about the upcoming year, but anytime someone gives a prediction the reader is at best to take it at it’s peril. Following blindly without question has consequences as the last two years has shown.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… The Times Square New Year’s Ball TimelineGizmodo wrote “Last year, we published the 100 year timeline of the Times Square New Year’s Ball. Now we’ve updated it with Philips’ and New York’s newest, most dazzling time ball ever. The 2009 New Year’s Ball is 12 feet in diameter…” Best of 2008: A List of Design Listsdesign:related wrote “It’s without a doubt that 2008 was an interesting year. With over 150 lists from more than 20 different categories, our year-end list of lists should keep you busy for a while.” Music ListsIs it bedtime wrote “All across the internet looks-back at 2008’s music are giving way to predictions for 2009. Time then for some lists other people have made:” Hack for free Starbucks wi-fi on your laptop (if you have an iPhone)an error occurred while processing this directive wrote “If you have an iphone, you get complimentary access to any AT&T wi-fi hotspot. These hotspots are in several chains, including Starbucks.” Good typography matters.1934 wrote “Lately, in my work at NPR, I have become more aware than ever how important good typography is. My main project right now is as lead designer on NPR.org’s redesign, which will go live sometime in 2009. Luckily, I have…” HOW TO 2008: How To Do Almost Anything With Social MediaMashable wrote “During 2008, we’ve tried to bring you the best how-tos for achieving more with social media tools: everything from Google products to blogging to online video to productivity and beyond. Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Friendfeed, and Delicious all got the How-To treatment.” Abanico horarionoquedanblogs wrote ““Fan clock” es un reloj que decora el espacio existente entre la hora y los minutos con un abanico. “Fan clock” the colored space between the hour and minute hands suggest a traditional folded hand-fan. Design by Stanislav Katz.” Book Review: Why Do Architects Wear Black?A Daily Dose of Architecture wrote “Architects wearing black is a stereotype on par with architects wearing black, plastic-frame spectacles. Most architects don’t abide by these fashion recipes, but if somebody outside the profession comes across…” “logical or emotional”i am the weather wrote “Craig Oldham recently published 12 IN 12, an accompaniment to a talk where he gave a listing of 12 things he learned in his first 12 months as a graphic designer. In the talk he touched upon the different cultures of designers…” outlinesAbout: “What is 2- and what is 3-dimensional? At first sight the black outlines seem to be the object, but with a change of angle reality shifts. The black lines only form a bench or a chair from one angle, from every other point of view there is no…” Express YourselfVisual Culture wrote “en Wilson has designed a chair for children that you can customize by coloring the chair as you see fit. The chair is cut from a flat plywood sheet, and the 2 Dimensional parts are assembled into a chair. If your feeling really inspired…” HIPSTER RUNOFF Presents 2k8’s Most CMMNTd PostsHipster Runoff wrote “HIPSTER RUNOFF is a place for discussion. HIPSTER RUNOFF is a place for commenting. HIPSTER RUNOFF is a for some of the most important social commentary in the world. HIPSTER RUNOFF is a place for progressive ideas…’” Smart People / Smart Ideas from December 2008Eyecube wrote “I’ve been thinking a lot about how I interact with social media. What am I giving and what am I taking? How, and what, am I sharing? How am I supporting the efforts of others? To that end, I started doing something on Twitter…” Full interview: Rahaf Harfoush on government transparencyAbout: “As transparency and two-way communication become the norm in business, media, and journalism, why has so much of what’s happened in Ottawa recently taken place behind closed doors? Is there something Canada can learn from…” Grid-A-LiciousAbout: “Grid-A-Licious™ is a Wordpress Theme made by Suprb. Divs are placed in chronological order with a special grid. Grid-A-Licious uses the jQuery javascript framework which can be downloaded from www.jquery.com. This layout can be seen at…” Hallie Jones - ArtistAbout: “Content on this page is from my radio show “Artificial Happiness” on WXBH Low Power FM, Brick Radio. All files are .mp3 format. The show features IDM, cliq-hop, experimental, hip-hop, ambient, leftfield, and downtempo electronic music.” Will Amateur Booksellers Kill Publishing?GalleyCat wrote “Over the weekend, NY Times writer David Streitfeld ignited a literary blogosphere controversy by blaming amateur booksellers for publishing’s current state of financial distress. The article’s central point proposed that avid..” Company woeEconomist wrote “To look ahead, look back to 2002. NO MATTER what happens in 2009, financial markets can surely not be as turbulent as they have been in 2008. The virtual demise of the independent investment bank, the rescue of Fannie Mae…” The Digital Ramble | For Richer, For PoorerThe Moment Blog wrote “The Digital Ramble explores aesthetic topics through materials found online. Seeing Daniel Arsham’s “Hammock” right now, the metaphor hits me in the gut: everything is in free fall, or so it feels. Poverty is relative, it has…” 20 Predictions for ‘09Archinect wrote “We at Archinect like to fondly look back as each year comes to a close. This year we’ve decided to take a slightly different approach. Instead of rounding up the greatest hits from 2008, we’re moving ahead and setting…” 25 fantastic design articles from 2008David Airey wrote “As a little thank you for reading my blog, I asked what your favourite design blog post was from 2008. A fitting way to finish off the year and to bring in the new, here’s what you chose, and why.” Monocle Launches Monocle Weekly: Small Talk, Big IssuesDesign Mind wrote “Yes, we live (again) in the “age of conversations.” There is something reassuring about listening to smart people having cultured conversations. When I was young, I would listen for hours to music-free radio programming…” 10 Religious Holidays Not Yet Exploited by Hallmark Mental Floss wrote “What’s not to love about holidays? You get to take off work, everyone’s in a great mood, and there’s always plenty of delicious food lying around. Wouldn’t it be great if we could sustain all that fun and excitement throughout the year?” Seen at StarbucksJunk Charts wrote “If you happened to be in a Starbucks recently, you might have picked up some charts, which was what happened to one of our regular readers and commentators, ZBicyclist, who then tried his hand at chart critique here…” Timeless and Time-Tested Warren Buffett Watch PredictionsCNBC wrote “As a new year approaches, it is customary for journalists to make predictions about the future. This time around, CNBC.com has a collection of prognostications from CNBC bloggers on a special page: Predictions ‘09.” The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3)Boston.com wrote “2008 has been an eventful year to say the least - it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I’ve done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008…” The Ten Most Popular Web Videos Of 2008Silicon Alley Insider wrote “2007’s most popular Web videos included amateur-created stuff like Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” and Chris Cocker’s “Leave Britney Alone.” This year professional content creators produced nine out of the year’s 10 most…” Jesse Wente’s Top 10 Films of 2008Blog – Q wrote “Q’s Screenboy Jesse Wente offers his take on the Top Ten Films of 2008. Did he get it right? What did he miss? What would your Top 10 be? JESSE’S TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2008 - I tried to keep it to movies released in Canada in 2008”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Posted on Jan 02.09 to Design, Link Drop | View comments Here’s to Twothousandnine  Today’s the day where you get to make a wish that comes true. Use that responsibility wisely. Posted on Jan 01.09 to Design | View comments 12 months of condensed DesignNotes in 2008  Wanting to take a look back so I can figure out how to proceed with 2009, I grabbed a bunch of notable posts that I thought were worth spending a bit more time with. Below each image I’ve made a note now that I’ve had some time away from each of the original posts. Here’s to the new year and thanks for visiting, and linking and commenting and… Do you have an iPod shuffle… and live in New York?01.16.08 This seemed like a great idea at the time, trade my shuffle with someone else and hear some new music. I ended up trading but due to my own business it took way too long to trade back with her. I learned my lesson – anyone else want to try trading?Copywronged Google Map01.18.08 I wanted to combine some of my photography with a listing of location. Another idea with good intentions, problem was it took a lot of time to map it out and I had no way of exporting the data offline if I wanted to. So after a while I stopped posting to that map.Living Patterns01.29.08 This post gave me the first really big pop traffic wise for the year. There were a ton of people that thought the map was pretty cool.Architecture wrapped up as a shoe01.31.08 I didn’t see as many women wearing these shoes as I hoped (probably b/c they were stupidly expensive). But it’s still true that NYC has the most beautiful people anywhere in the world…Actually seeing those Obama posters outside02.02.08 This was before things really took off with Obama, I had seen the Hope graphic floating around the web but this was the first image I saw of it actually on the streets. A while after that post someone mailed me a couple of the posters. That was a very good day.Orange Bicycles in New York02.03.08 There was an interesting discussion after I posted this - unfortunately when I installed Disqus after the fact that comment stayed in the old database of comments. In effect the person was objecting to the commercialization of the idea of the Ghost Bike. At the time I was pretty much on the opposite side thinking that a company shouldn’t have to worry about worry such things. As I’ve walked a lot through the city and seen those white bikes out there, that person may have been correct with their objections.Making something understandable as opposed to just simplifying02.04.08  I still luv this design, I wish everything I design could be as smart as that tag.Talking Sticker02.08.08 I was fascinated with how this post happened. Took a photo of a cool sticker, the person that designed it contacted me and this was the diagram that tracked it. 36 days of New York Sky: January 16th 2008 - February 20th 20082.20.08 This project is still going on for a couple weeks, but the number of people that saw it and contacted me after this post was quite amazing. Not sure where this project will end up but up until now it’s been interesting to watch it grow.Looking at MoMA’s Design and Elastic Mind Exhibition02.25.08 There was three events that were sort of art, sort of design that I really enjoyed seeing. One was MoMA’s Design and Elastic Mind Exhibition, Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum and Buckminster Fuller at the Whitney. I would have luved to have blogged more about the last two exhibitions but since they don’t allow photography inside I’ll just mention that it’s a stupid policy that will hurt them more than what it will help. Banksy’s installations would be up there too in really good things to have seen now that I think about it.Can you exist without a permalink?02.26.08 Until people realize this concept they’re toast.Unmarked Shoe02.28.08 Just like the Frietag instruction booklet I mentioned above, Camper’s shoes are a product that other designers should want to strive for. They are perfect for the weather of NYC and never wear out. There’s only two brands of shoes that I buy, Camper and Giraudon.A Tagger in your midst?03.03.08 I feel bad for whoever had to make this and deal with the text.Love Me, next come the t-shirts – maybe on Etsy?03.07.08 Here’s to wishful thinking.Taking a quick look at Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior03.26.08 Of any of the books I blogged about, this by far had the most hits coming from people wanting more info on it.Multiplatform Complaining03.26.08 This post was the start of me sketching more fluently for blog posts.Air Bear03.31.08Pure genius via Wooster CollectiveFaux Eiffel Tower Extension04.02.08 haha, sigh.Clay Shirky on Stephen Colbert04.05.08 There’s a lot of really smart stuff in this book. In my top 3 of things to read, and more interestingly I don’t think this book will date itself as much as some of the others along the same genre that came out this year.Thinking about Mind 08 after the Symposium04.07.08 I’ll really liked the design I did for this tag cloud, nothing more nothing less to this post.reDesign Haiku04.12.08find, define, designthen refine the redesigndo it one more timeA friend wrote this for me over im as I talked about work… Over at Paul Smith in SoHo - MAY 68: STREET POSTERS FROM THE PARIS REBELLION, and other poster finds around New York05.02.08 I hope the start of next May has some great posters like this year.I Hate Perfume, Ideas I Love05.10.08 How cool would it be to commision someone to make a scent for you?Today’s Sky Mention05.14.08 This unexpected use of my sky pics made me smile.Looking at yourself as a Graphic Designer05.15.08 Very smart diagram…If you care about your stuff, make sure people can duplicate it06.01.08 This concept was an addendum to Permalink post.My M.O.06.11.08 This was another post where I got back some unexpected responses. I like going back every once in awhile to read the dialogue.What are you doing today?06.22.08 While this ad could be just about for anything, there’s some subtle and smart things going on past the surface. Too bad I couldn’t embed it and had to take a screen shot.The Flo in Florent06.30.08 This is why people need to hire designers.NPR Cancels The ‘BPP’ (Bryant Park Project)?!?07.14.08 I’m still not happy about this. More surprising (or maybe not), no one has picked up the ball on voice news since. The Daily Beast is starting to pick up the pace but it’s just txt for now.Scrolling Through Photos07.21.08 I can’t say enough positive things about this startup. There’s a ton of smart things going on with them.People interpreting news events and information07.30.08 I don’t understand why this hasn’t been fixed or updated. There’s so much potential for Google Hot Trends to be a go to source.Everyone is not just a designer, but also a photoshop expert too08.14.08 It’s not bad enough that everyone wants to be a designer, now they think they can art direct photos too.Hypothetically Say You Lost your Mac Book Pro08.18.08 Possibly my best blog post of the year imho.Clean iPhone psd template08.20.08 I’m surprised that Apple never made a psd themselves so people could sketch out apps.Say what you mean w/ a click08.25.08 For all the chatter of sites that tagged brands, I think Dear Adobe changed the game more so than any other UGC site. If I was wanting to study site concepts for company’s, this is where I would start. And no, Adobe didn’t design the site.Flow 08.27.08![flow_ [not sure who designed this]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3074/2803057603_e5f8c09b40_m.jpg) What can I say? A lot of people are interested in . Walking around NYC finding the David Byrne Bike Racks09.02.08 I like to walk and this gave me an excuse to go to some areas that my normal routes wouldn’t take me.Banksy at work in NYC: Broadway & Howard St.10.01.08 There’s a saying about being lucky to be good, but you have to be good to be lucky. Sometimes it just helps being in the right place at the right time.How I Find Good Stuff on the Web10.15.08 This post kind of blew up things for me. The number of smart people that checked out my blog after this was pretty amazing. Hopefully I can build on that in the new year.What’s your internet?10.21.08 The amount of traffic I received after this post kind of made me eat my words about tumblr and ffffound. I just wished tumblr would archive things better…The old and new MetLife Signs above New York11.02.08 It’s amazing to watch the stats on how many people from MetLife check out this post everyday.Looking at the Nooka Zon12.08.08 I’m guesstimating that I got an extra 9,000 unique hits b/c of this post. A couple blogs and twitter really sent a lot of extra traffic my way b/c of that watch.What Graphic Designers need to understand12.09.08 I’ve probably had more face to face conversations about this post than anything else I blogged about this year. Posted on Dec 31.08 to Uncategorized, Advertising & Marketing, Architecture, Art, Blogs, Books, Business, Culture, Design, DIY, Food, GDC, Illustration, Industrial Design, Information Design, Interaction Design, Inspiration, Mac, Magazines, Muzak, Next Big Thing, NYC, Photography, Podcast, Poster, Quotes, Resources & Tools, Reviews, Sport, Street Art, Travel, Typography, Video, WIFI, Design Talk, Coffee, Interview, Event, URL Dump, Dogs, Misc., Social 2.0, Spec, Diagrams, Software & Technlogy, Web Design, Shoes, Academic, AIGA, YouTube, Sound Design, Environmental Sustainability, Maps, iPhone, cell, Logo, sticker, New York City Colour, News, Copyright, UX, Haiku, twitter, flickr, Scent, info dump, v1, Quote, Link Drop, Fashion, Information Architecture, Animation, Time, QR Code, Politics, Foosball, Book Review, Economy | View comments When waiting in line at the post office, these thoughts came to mind…    Many months ago I spent way too much time in the post office behind MSG with Tamara as I helped her send some packages. I thought it was great timing as I would be able to buy some of those Eames stamps. Sad thing after waiting a stupid amount of time was that there were none available. Ironically, months later, after my wife waited in two other lines she was finally able to get stamps, not at an actual post office but online. Completely ridiculous that a person can’t even buy the stamps they want in person and has to order them online. That’s what she did and gave me the best present for xmas possible. Below are my notes from typing on my iphone while waiting in line back in September. As I took some pics of the actual stamps I took them out of the frame she put them in. Nice detail that she didn’t mention to me. She cut the mat board left the back info to be read. Nice…1 MIN: what the hell, that’s the line?1.5 MIN: contemplate the pros and cons of staying in line or not2.25 MIN: try to think of the positives - that lasts about 90 seconds.4 MIN: feels like I’ve been standing for 20 minutes8 MIN: my head starts looking at the ceiling10 MIN: I notice that the air is stale and there’s no air conditioning12 MIN: fits start happening13 MIN: talking out loud about how slow things are13.5 MIN: there’s two lines - I better be in the right one15 MIN: I pretend not to hear someone ask what time the post office closes - relieved that it’s open 24 hours18 MIN: after watching the number of people trying to talk to Tamara I wonder if anyone has actually been married after trying such a bs thing20 MIN: I’ve decided the breaking point is when you either start grumbling or start laughing hysterically Posted on Dec 30.08 to Design, NYC | View comments Link Drop for the Week Ending in Friday the 26th (December 2008)  ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………The last Link Drop of 2008 almost never happened. I completely forgot that today was Friday after all the “hoopla” that comes along with Xmas. After walking Maddie it kind of dawned on me that it might be Friday. In any case I managed to throw something together. Hopefully you enjoyed yourself Xmas (if you do that) as much as I did and by the time you read the next version of this it will 2009 – how crazy is that?– m…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ‘welcome back’ bus by miñarro garcía, héctor serrano studio and javier estebanDesignboom wrote “earlier this year the transport for london held a competition asking people to design a new bus for the city. aston martin together with foster + partners were named winners just a few weeks ago but coming…” Dan McPharlinThe Strange Attractor wrote “Dan McPharlin builds miniature analog synths and audio equipment. All models are meticulously hand-crafted from cardboard. View the full set. For more on the process, and other projects he’s involved in, check out this interview.” The Death of PhotojournalismThe One Train wrote “I’m going to keep this short because I think Vincent Laforet’s recent post sums up my thoughts fairly accurately, but stories like this one make me livid. Time, I don’t care how badly you’re suffering right now, this is nothing short of taking advantage of photographers…” Flickr in TIMEHeather Powazek Champ wrote “A few weeks ago, Douglas sent Tara and I an email with the news that TIME was interested in publishing a few Flickr photos in their “Person of the Year” issue. Would we be interested in making initial introductions on behalf of their photo editors for a top secret feature…” Diconcerting things that I read today on my iPhone while sitting in car at an icy 24-hr Walgreen’s parking lot while baby is passed out from flu shot and vaccinations and her damn Rx isn’t ready yet and I am jonesing to finish a work deadlineGongblog wrote “States prioritize fixing roads over…” The Making of ManhattanvilleAbout: “Since Columbia announced its plans to build another campus in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem over four years ago, the university has met a great deal of opposition from local residents, business owners, community boards, and members of Columbia’s own faculty…” “The Mobile City on The Situationists”I am the weather wrote “What struck me was that locative media practitioners often refer back to the situationists as some kind of ancestors, as if they’re working in the same vein. The situationist love for traipsing about town is shared by locative artists who similarly enjoy taking…” Emma Hack Takes Body Art To A New Level With Her Latest CollectionIf It’s Hip, It’s Here wrote “We’ve seen body painting before. I’ve posted about well-known hand painter, Guido Daniele and the body painting of shoes on feet by Temptu. And how could I forget Veruschka?* But it wasn’t until…” Showing the difference between a 19″ and 22″ suitcase37 signals wrote “What size rolling luggage to buy? Shopping at Amazon, it feels like a shot in the dark.Lots of closeups of handles and wheels, but what’s the difference between a 19” or 22” bag? There’s no real guidance. This is the kind of situation where a site that focuses on a specific niche can really shine.” Sometimes Product Packaging is More Important Than the Actual ProductHipster Runoff wrote “As yall know, I am an alternative businessman with relevant opinions on how to set up a successful alternative business. If u come to my blog offices for a consulting session, I will teach u how to turn 10 Am Appy…” Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s LibraryWired wrote “Nothing quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker’s library. You exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects…” GateHouseGateRecovering Journalist wrote “I got a call a few weeks ago from a usually smart print editor who was outraged about aggregation sites linking to his paper’s content. In his view, the aggregators were “stealing” his content and selling ads against it–even though all the aggregator was doing, like most of the breed…” Bird Tracks in the SnowBen Fry wrote “Look at all the footprints in the snow: The previous play began to the right of the white line, where you can see most of the snow was cleared by the players lining up. Just to the left of that is another cleared area, where a group of players began to tackle Sammy Morris…” The Buzzwords of 2008NYT wrote “Politics without buzzwords is like sports without clichés, math without numbers or Blago without bleeps. Tough to imagine, in other words, especially in such a game-changer of a campaign year in which buzzwords were flying like shoes. Buzzwords are what political wiseguys…” Paul Goldberger: Architecture’s Ten Best of 2008The New Yorker wrote “Architectural history will probably treat 2008 more kindly than it deserves to be treated, only because there was architecture to talk about. Never mind that most of the buildings finished over the last twelve months are relics of a time when we actually thought we could afford to build things…” “Digilogue” U-CityCellar Door wrote “I’ve been interested in the relationship between analogue and digital for a while; two years ago I explored stepping back and re-exploring analogue for the ritual side of things. Over time, though, I started noticing that this doesn’t need to be the case anymore…” Ownership in a Digital World & Blurring the Boundary Between Products and ServicesPSFK wrote “A group of auto dealers in Oregon secretly attached GPS tracking units to the cars of customers with poor credit to better track them in the event of repossession. This questionable act has brought up a debate…” Coffee-Vodka recipeDrinks Mixer wrote “Boil water and sugar until dissolved. Turn off heat. Slowly add dry instant coffee and continue stirring. Add a chopped vanilla bean to the vodka, then combine the cooled sugar syrup and coffee solution with the vodka. Cover tightly and shake vigorously each day for 3 weeks. Strain and filter.” spyAbout: “spy can listen in on the social media conversations you’re interested in. What do you want to listen for?” Most Coveted Covers201 covers from Readerville Eyelash Typeface…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Posted on Dec 26.08 to Design, Misc., Link Drop | View comments Xmas over here at DesignNotes HQ and some music for the day   With one day left till Xmas I thought it was a good time to say thanks to all of you that took the time to read one of my posts, made a comment (even the not so nice ones, those keep me on my toes), posted a link from a different site back to DesignNotes or just passed on my site to someone else. I kind of feel I’ve been on a bit of a roll the last couple of months which has made this tough year a lot easier to experience. Hopefully things weren’t too crazy for you and everything that you want in 2009 will happen.I also thought this song was apt for the day James Brown - Soulful Christmas, and if you liked that, here’s a full playlist of stuff that probably won’t make you want to go postal in the mall: December Mixtape: Merry Christmas Baby. Posted on Dec 24.08 to Blogs, Design | View comments This post took 12 months to do; looking back at my two-thousand-and-ate Monthly Posters for 2008             Many months ago, twelve I think, I received a really interesting package of posters from Jennifer Daniel. The twelve posters each represented a month and were illustrated by a diverse set of people. Before I had even opened the tube I knew I was getting something good when the url for the calendar set was http://httpcolonforwardslashforwardslashwwwdotjenniferdanieldotcom.com/calendar Soon after I took pictures of each poster and blogged about it b/c that’s what I do. But I also wanted to take pictures of them in context – I hate seeing design that’s not in their context when photographed… So each month when I changed one of my pin boards I photographed what was around the monthly poster. Now that I can look back at the last year in calendar posters I can appreciate the genius in the idea a bit more. The concept of changing a poster space each month is kind of cool. In practical terms I don’t think I ever turned my head to see what the date was on paper, but for adding some great visuals it really made my area a bit more fun to work in. It’s such a good idea I might have to steal it next year… Posted on Dec 23.08 to Design, Poster, Reviews | View comments Hey airport architects, why not design more power outlets in seating areas?  I’m sure there are airports out there that have realized that a majority of business travelers use laptops since they all offer pay as you go wifi services. The thing is, it’s kind of hard to use wifi if your power supply is limited b/c you can’t find a power outlet. That was me this afternoon walking around trying to find a place to plug in my laptop in Toronto. I had to spend a couple hours at the airport and it was not easy to find an outlet that was halfway down a hallway. So on the fluke chance that you’re actually taking an American Airline’s flight in Toronto and you find this post, there’s one decent outlet near the restaurant in B12. But it seriously baffles me that wifi providers don’t realize that they need to power the laptop’s if you want people to use wifi. Posted on Dec 22.08 to Architecture, Design | View comments REVIEW COPY: All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem: An Inappropriate Book for Young Ladies* by Laurie Rosenwald       When I started going through Laurie Rosenwald’s book “All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem: An Inappropriate Book for Young Ladies*” I almost immediately thought that it would be a good companion to “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be” by Paul Arden. The only difference being that Rosenwald’s book is not just for creatives. I obviously don’t fit who the book was written for as I’m not a teenage girl, but as each page reads like a poster with something to ponder it’s pretty hard not to be interested in it. Having no experience with editing what so ever I kind of felt for the editor of this book. How would you even start? The text, ideas and images are so intrinsically put together that any edit of those elements would change the entire page. Right beside the ISBN and Library of Congress info is a mention that “art created with scissors, paper, crayons, a digital camera, Illustrator and Photoshop”. If there’s anything missing in the book, it’s that I would have luved to have seen some scotch tape and glue drips on that pages. It would have added some texture that would have made me forget that I’m looking at a book that’s combined digital and tactile materials.Another initial reaction was that there should be an audio version of this book. Why? There’s so many bursts of energy that I think it would be fascinating to hear her blurt out everything that’s she’s put on each page. Thinking back about another similarity to Arden’s book, her book is something that you can pull off the shelf, find a page that speaks to you and get something from it. It’s like a reference book that’s not boring.BOOK DETAILSTitle: All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem: An Inappropriate Book for Young Ladies*Authors: Laurie RosenwaldPublisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books Posted on Dec 20.08 to Books, Design, Reviews, Book Review | View comments Daylife Select Release  A couple weeks ago I mentioned the release of Daylife Select on the blog. This is an updated post following our latest release. I want to preface this a bit by mentioning that a lot of people at Daylife made the latest version at http://select.daylife.com kicks some serious ass and I’m just one person that had a hand in it. This is coming from my pov and shouldn’t nec. be seen as official commentary in anyway. I’m just happy that it got released and that there’s some really cool stuff I want to mention… I couldn’t help but smile a bit as I watched the PSFK video of Good Ideas in 2009 in Digital as they pretty much talked about what Daylife can do already as an aggregate. So I might recommend listening to that video as you click around our Daylife Select.   There’s a couple significant things that this release accomplished in my eyes, the site now is starting to have a personality (no more all white boxes), we’ve opened a lot more ways to view photos in the news, and we’ve been able to place quotes in context. There’s also a ton of backend improvements, but an engineer is better qualified to talk about that. I’ve used Banksy to illustrate of that Daylife Select can do. There’s the topic page that collects all the data that we can pull in via Headlines and articles, photos, videos, quotes, wikipedia and related topics. The topic page has four main tabs that collects each of those media types and a fifth that is an overview of everything. The photo tab now has a button that will now display all the images in a grid format that allows you to go through a ton of images really quickly. Once you find an image you want to see by itself it will go to a photo detail page, where you can see even more photos underneath.  One of my favourite features about Daylife Select is that it can pull quotes. I can get a glimpse of what a lot of people are saying quite quickly. Up until now you would click on the quote and it would send you off site. Now when you click on a quote it goes to a page that will allow you to read it in context and find more quotes of similar nature. The page needs a bit more design luv, but that will come soon enough.Of course there’s more stuff coming up for Daylife Select, but until you can actually click to see it you’ll have to wait. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’d encourage you to click around and let me know what you think works and what doesn’t. Did something seem weird – that kind of info. As you can imagine the site is in constant growth and evolution mode. Posted on Dec 19.08 to Design, Information Design, Interaction Design, News, UX | View comments Link Drop for the Week Ending in Friday the 19th (December 2008)  ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………This week’s Link Drop has a number of topic pairs that when I started gathering sites this week would not have been able to predict. There’s two posts talking about toilet paper, there’s a couple things about Intel and there’s two unrelated posts that have “2 or 3” in the title. This is the last Link Drop before I take some serious time to recharge my batteries (will be reading a lot of technical and non tech. books) and start getting ready for the exciting stuff that’s going to happen in the new year. But don’t worry I’ll still have a couple links next week. It’s not like I won’t be on the interwebs.Have a great holiday and see you in a week or so– mI had a bit of a jump this week again in terms of new people visiting, so if you’re wondering what this Link Drop is, it’s basically a collection of stuff that I want to spend reading over the weekend. If you’re reading this on a PC or from a rss feed reader, please accept my apologies as I’ve found out it looks like garbage. Hopefully that too will be fixed in the next year. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Twenty Typefaces of 2008FontShop News wrote “’Twas a big year with hundreds of new fonts released at FontShop during 2008. It’s time to honor the tradition we began last year and bring you the best of them. There’s one change, though: with so many notable types this time around, we thought we’d double the number of honorees.” Exclusive: The Street Art Scene is like One Big Block PartyFlavorwire wrote “If you’ve walked the streets of New York, you’re already familiar with the artists now showing in Ad Hoc Art’s Brooklyn Block Party. Outside of the five boroughs, you may have become acquainted with them online through sites like Streetsy or Fecal Face — they’re some of the…” Climate change: The carbon atlasGuardian wrote “New figures published today confirm that China has overtaken the US as the largest emitter of CO2. This interactive emissions map shows how the rest of the world compares. Global C02 emissions totalled 29,195m tonnes in 2006 – up 2.4% on 2005” 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 MinutesOverthinking It wrote “So way back in April, I first had the idea of editing together inspirational speeches. Since then, the Dow has dropped 3,000 points and one million jobs have been lost. The people of the United States are now a ragtag bunch of scruffy underdogs, down by three touchdowns at halftime…” Wearable Toy Piano ShirtCraziest Gadgets wrote “Musical shirts are all the rage these days. You can make yourself one of these wearable toy piano shirts and then get together with someone who has the Electronic Drum Kit Shirt and start a shirt band. Unfortunately the piano shirt is just a one-off made by a crafty…” Laying off GeorgeJeffrey Zeldman wrote “George Oates is responsible for much of what is great about Flickr. George Oates is the last person a sane company would lay off. I don’t know what to think about Yahoo after reading how they laid off George Oates.” Intel releases social media guidelinesTitanium wrote “Last week Forrester released research that suggests that 84% of corporate blogs suck. Those bloggers should have read this standards guide first. Intel gets it: “Social communication from Intel should help our customers, partners, and co-workers. It should be thought-provoking…” TAXI CAFÉlovely package wrote “Nice work from TAXI for their chain of cafés. Be sure to read the copy on the coffee bags. Fonts used: Akzidenz Grotesk.” 5 Inspiring Web Design Conference Speeches you Shouldn’t Have Missed in 2008Blog.SpoonGraphics wrote “Web design conferences are fantastic for keeping up to date with the industry changes and for gaining useful advice from big name contributors. Unfortunately with there being conferences held around the world…” SCOUTING NYAbout: “I work as a film location scout in New York City. My day is basically spent combing the streets for interesting and unique locations for feature films. In my travels, I often stumble across some pretty incredible sights, most of which are ignored every day by thousands of New Yorkers in too much of…” The 8th Annual Year in Ideas IssueNYT wrote “Welcome back to the Year in Ideas issue. For the eighth year in a row, we have compiled an alphabetical digest of ideas, from A to Z (almost), that helped make the previous 12 months, for better or worse, what they were.” The Yale Book of QuotationsYale University Press wrote “Author Fred R. Shapiro’s, Most Notable Quotations of 2008 1. “I can see Russia from my house!” — Sarah Palin on her foreign-policy credentials, as satirized by Tina Fey, NBC “Saturday Night Live” broadcast, Sept. 13, 2008 2. “All of them, any of them that have been in front…” PsychodesignAdbusters wrote “What if design stood up for itself? What if instead of bowing immediately to our demands, design gently pushed back?” AMBIDEXTROUS MAGAZINE!About: “Ambidextrous illuminates the people and processes involved in design. It is a forum for the cross-disciplinary, cross-market community of people with an academic, professional and personal interest in design. The magazine is written and staffed by an all-volunteer collective.” Digital Drag RaceAbout: “To introduce the new Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition™ Processor, Intel has created a design challenge known as the Digital Drag Race. To participate, designers can download provided assets and create their own 17 sec. drag race videos. These videos are pitted against each other in “Fan Battles” where audiences vote for the best, and those with the most votes get coverage on the site: Scoop.Intel.com. To participate, click here: http://blog.digitaldragrace.com/video” From Campaigns to Discussions (and Other Digital Lessons for 2009)Creativity Online wrote “With input from a few insightful industry types, we look at how digital content, and those creating it, will evolve in the coming year, as well as what consistent trends we saw through 2008.” The Death Throes of Print?Jason Sanata Maria wrote “For years people have declared that print is dead, but perhaps these are now its final days. Nearly every morning you can find a new article about some publication closing up their print editions and moving solely over to the web. The failing economy is an easy direction to…” The $10 Trillion Hangover - Paying the Price for Eight Years of Bush (Harper’s)“Republished from Harper’s. January 2009 issue. By Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz. Information graphics by Nigel Holmes. In the eight years since George W. Bush took office, nearly every component of the U.S. economy…” Birkhäuser Publishes The Complete Works of Adrian FrutigerFontFeed wrote “There is little doubt that this is the one. Arguably the most important type-related book of the decade has been released: Adrian Frutiger - Typefaces. The Complete Works. Many people associate Adrian Frutiger with Univers, the typeface that made him internationally…” Video: Good Ideas in 2009 in DigitalAbout: “This morning’s Good Ideas Salon focused on Digital, exploring new ways in which individuals and brands are storing, sharing, and archiving their online narratives. The panel, moderated by Piers Fawkes (PSFK), included Claire Hyland (Electric Artists), Johanna Beyenbach (Naked), Mike…” 5 Best Music Videos of 2008!booooooom wrote “These are my picks for the 5 best music videos of 2008. If you think you already know all five, I’ll tell you that Bjork’s Wanderlust and Radiohead’s House of Cards did not make the cut! We can argue about my decisions in the comments if you’d like. I’ve tried to track down…” Adversarial Design, Part 3: Arguing the UnarguableGraphpaper wrote “Debating the merits of competing design ideas is fun and, as I’ve argued in parts one and two, can be extremely productive. But some design disputes are, I think, unanswerable. And it’s important to realize when a debate has crossed over from something you can resolve…” 2 (or 3) Questions for Adrian KondratowiczMoCo Loco wrote “With the holidays almost upon us we thought this interview might inspire us to reduce and beautify. Adrian Kondratowicz is the artist behind TRASH:anycoloryoulike, an art intervention in New York City. Trash from selected city blocks is re-bagged into Adrian’s biodegradable…” Mashup Culture Under Attack: Mixwit Goes The Way Of MuxtapeTechCrunch wrote “The digital mixtape is dying on the Web. The RIAA is killing it just like it tries to kill anything that smacks of consumer-driven innovation. Digital mixtapes are nothing more than shared playlists. Sites that make it easy…” 2 or 3 things I knowAbout: “In pursuit of Craft: “Great design begins with a well stacked wood shed” gridr buildrrr Creativity’s Favorite Video Ads Animals In The WombLikecool wrote “The amazing animals in the womb photos.” guest speaking at Internet Famo class. Dishing out the keys to Vimeo fame.…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Posted on Dec 19.08 to Design, Misc., Link Drop | View comments Read vs. View  It’s a minor thing, but this morning when I went to click on a button to see a video, the button said “read” on it. Nothing serious about that though I wonder if view would have been a better choice. That then got me to think about actions after you click. How often do you click on a button that usually says “read” to get more info and all you do is scroll, grab a bit of info an move on? Are you really reading or more like viewing? Kind of like back in the day when tv was relevant and you were passively taking things in. Posted on Dec 18.08 to Design, UX | View comments Creative Mornings: Zach Klein and Casey Pugh Notes & Video  12/12/08 Zach Klein and Casey Pugh on Physical Computing from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.“I was seeking the thrill of learning something new” and so the ten minute talk (it was actually 23 minutes, but who’s counting) started with Zach Klein and Casey Pugh presenting at Creative Mornings which was held in MEET. In the short time that they had, they talked about the basics of physical computing to a bunch of people that probably hadn’t made a circuit before. Within the context of expanding what web 2.0 is/was, there was an explanation of how physical computing will make that information useful while taking it offlineProbably my fav. quote was in reference to a simple resistor – “for a LED, you don’t want to send too much electricity to it because it will explode. hehehe”. All the info that Klein and Pugh mentioned can be found at www.10minchat.com. Among other things that the audience learned was that the Arduino is either named after a bar or an Italian word for masculinity by some geeks with an insecurity complex.What I appreciated about the talk was that they laid out a couple simple principals and then showed examples that got progressively more complex. While doing that they included a couple of reference books that anyone could pick up and replicate on their own time. If there had been more time I would have been interested in hearing about their thought process on actually creating something. Did they already know what they wanted to build before they started or was it like playing with lego – did they come up with an idea as they were working on connecting the LED’s? Aside from that I was just happy to meet up with some familiar faces and meet a couple new ones. Posted on Dec 17.08 to Design, Interaction Design, Next Big Thing, NYC, Reviews, Video, Event, Software & Technlogy | View comments A nice and easy shopping browse  This morning in my inbox I had a link for Project No.8’s holiday giftguide. I’m a fan of the scroll as it allows the person exploring a site to set the speed for how they want to find information. The giftguide’s simple approach by breaking the info buy into three different prices isn’t pushing the boundaries of information design, but buy lumping all the products together you don’t have to worry about superficial names of the objects. The photo quality isn’t great but it is clear enough that you know what you’re going to get. The placement of the < previous | next> buttons is very smart too, you never have to move your cursor when you start clicking. It’s a simple site that is doing some really smart things - I wish more product sites would follow that lead. Check out the site yourself at www.projectno8.com/holiday.html Posted on Dec 16.08 to Design, UX, Information Architecture | View comments COPY®IGHT RAT   A couple months ago I came across a fairly familiar mascot that pops up from time to time in New York. It’s a large inflatable rat that parks itself in front of establishments that are using non union people for union jobs (that’s my assumption at least). But for this particular time I didn’t see the rat in person, but inside an ad for HSBC. Like a lot of others I’m confused as to why they would want to use such a controversial image for part of it’s marketing campaign? I’m also wondering if there was any litigation involved? I’m also wondering how that was approved b/c I could certainly learn a thing or two about how that concept was sold… Posted on Dec 15.08 to Advertising & Marketing, Design, NYC | View comments « Previous Entries
DesignNotes by Michael Surtees
another side of design
DesignNotes was launched in Canada in 2006 and is now published in New York by designer, writer and educator Michael Surtees. Michael tries to see life filtered through design, as opposed to placing design on a pedestal. Every once in a while, food and music slip on into the discussion. When not writing about design, Michael is the Design Director of Daylife. Please keep in mind that the views expressed on this blog are solely Michael's, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of anyone else. He can be reached at michael at michaelsurtees.com
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