Growing Design Webliography DesignFeast.com now has Search

The headline may sound lackluster, but it took awhile for Design Feast to be equipped with a way to search its content. I simply didn’t know how to do this myself when starting the site in 1999. Likewise, content was thin back then, as I began the curation of noteworthy, web-based content related to design.

Design Feast currently showcases 1,503 sites, further supplemented with original content like the Designer’s Quest(ionnaire)—making a search capability sorely needed. As a friend related in a past email:

You need a search function on Design Feast ;-)

I’m glad to finally say that the newly added (top bar) search makes it possible not only to comb through Design Feast, but also to visit affiliated sites.



My web-developer buddy Minna Kim Mazza, who co-built the Design Engage job board site, also built this new search capability. I’m really satisfied with the way it turned out and hope you will be, too. The plan is to carry it over to the Design Feast’s upcoming redesign. As Design Feast’s content grows, I’ve been thinking how to improve the site’s interface and interaction. So a redesign is currently in progress behind the scenes, with the goal of launching a refreshed version within the next few months. More about this in upcoming posts. Speaking of redesign, there’s been a lot of that going around lately: from Design Observer’s site to National Public Radio’s site to the site of the LA Times.

Thanks to everyone who visits Design Feast! Rest assured that future Design Feast visits will continue to reward visitors with a growing collection of diverse design content, creative voices and projects, as well as improving features and functions.

Finding Typographic Matter at a Furniture Repairer’s Workshop—and Digressing in a Good Way

One of the wooden chairs that surround my dining table recently broke (the hard way, by force of gravity). I finally seized weekend time to get it fixed and discovered a conveniently located wooden furniture repairer via Yelp.com. Like finding typographic matter during my trip to New York City last January, another revelation awaited me amidst the repair shop’s arrangement of distressed chairs, tables and dressers: Several pages from mid-century modern furniture manuals.

It appeared that the spine and covers were gone—don’t know why nor how and assuming that it was more usable to have them dispersed, in order to work on separate projects simultaneously. But the spreads themselves had a layout that was refreshing to see. Though the justification alignment of text had holes in spacing, the incorporation of photographs, penciled renderings, solid background colors, and in particular, diagrams piqued my interest:





Indulging in the book spreads led to another find residing close by—A handbook about the construction of mobiles:



The furniture repairer mentioned that it’s a new hobby. He admired, as I do, the work of Alexander Calder.

Further panning the furniture repairer’s workshop, I fixated on an “old-school” pencil sharpener. I expressed my liking for it, more engrossed in its geometry than the streamlined form of electric pencil sharpeners:



The furniture repairer then showed me another pencil sharpener, matching in mechanics but presenting a different shape. His reviving of furniture matched his fondness for other objects sharing the same timeline. Perhaps our nostalgic chat, beyond the original intention for my visit, was a superficial digression. But I think it benefited the comfort level between a new customer and a business owner desiring new business.

If there’s a tendency to express curiosity over objects—whether they are books or manual pencil sharpeners, and if that curiosity is appropriate—it’s a tendency that should be nurtured. It could cultivate a shared interest, or in this case, incite multiple points of fascination. This impulsive string of discoveries was a celebration of culture, printed and sharpened, in this encounter.

I left with an impression of like-mindedness. On my drive home, I felt, with confidence, that the broken chair was in capable and compassionate hands.

Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Graphic designer Lottie Crumbleholme

The Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast initiative that describes and captures a designer’s perspective in a succinct format. I discovered Lottie Crumbleholme at blog Monoscope where her Lost Skills Depository project (detail above) was featured. This series of booklets, printed on salvaged paper, “encourages people to extend the life of well-loved clothes by providing them with simple instructions for basic sewing techniques used in mending.” The meaning and matching form of this work instantly had me hooked. Lottie is “interested in developing ways of communicating messages that encourage people to adopt more environmentally sustainable behaviour.” Read more about her insightful take on design and designing.

Previous Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Graphic and web designer Julie Oya

Your SXSW 2010 Vote: Panel Submissions by Duane King, Austin Kleon and Steve Portigal

The first south by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) was held in Austin, Texas in 1987. The event diversified in 1994 with the addition of film and interactive conferences. Since then, SXSW has become one of the largest music, film and interactive festivals in the U.S. For the anticipated 2010 event, three highly creative people (and Twitter buddies of mine) submitted ideas for panels, now open for public voting. The move embodied the SXSW Interactive Festival’s credo: “brings together the world’s most creative web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators, content producers, programmers, widget inventors and new media entrepreneurs.”

Duane King is the half of Santa Fe-based BBDK, a design, brand development and marketing communications group. He founded and sustains Thinking for a Living, an “ever-growing platform dedicated to the concept of open source design education.” King also participated in the Designer’s Quest(ionnaire).

His submission for SXSW is called Where the Sidewalk Ends and reflects on “how personal projects will take you where you want to go.” In addition to King’s insights, this panel discussion will also include illustrator, graphic designer and writer Frank Chimero, typographic blog AisleOne’s Antonio Carusone, art director and designer Shane Bzdok, and creative strategist, designer, speaker, interaction developer Ian Coyle.

Austin Kleon is a writer, cartoonist and designer whose forthcoming collection of witty Newspaper Blackout Poems will be available from HarperCollins in February 2010. Leon also participated in the Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire). His panel submission is called Visual Note-Taking 101, which is focused on learning “practical techniques and ‘tricks of the trade’ from modern visual note-taking masters: how to write, sketch, and diagram ideas live, in real time, as you hear them.”

Steve Portigal is the founder of Portigal Consulting, which brings together user research, design and business strategy to help companies discover and act on new insights about their customers. To coin a phrase, as Steve put it, he is passionate about the “stuff of a culture—its products, companies, consumers, media, and advertising.” His panel submission is called Culture Kicks Our Ass: How To Kick Back, which will “explore the different cultural challenges that breakthrough products must overcome.”

Being one of many regular visitors to King’s, Kleon’s and Portigal’s projects and pursuits, their willingness to share what their learning and practices is simply awesome. I put in my vote for their panel submissions. I strongly encourage you to do the same at the Interactive programming proposals of the SXSW 2010 PanelPicker.

Image source: SXSW.com

Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s Loyal Subjects: Typefaces, Stationery and Boxes, Lots of ’em

Who knew that the great film director Stanley Kubrick was also a type director? In 2004, The Guardian’s Jon Ronson was given special access to Kubrick’s Childwickbury Manor near St. Albans, north of central London. Ronson met with Tony Frewin, Kubrick’s assistant from 1965 until the director’s passing in 1999. Kubrick’s organic and intensive work style resulted in just 13 films and three documentary shorts, but also a large archive of research material which reside in an extensive array of boxes, filing cabinets and storage cabins.

When Ronson took a break from mining Kubrick’s archive, he noticed a note attached to Tony’s postal inbox. The note had POSTMAN typeset in Futura Extra Bold. Frewin revealed that it was Kubrick’s favorite typeface among others: “He liked Helvetica and Univers, too. Clean and elegant.” The following exchange, reported in Jon’s article, between Jon and Tony is brief but telling, typographically speaking:

“Is this the kind of thing you and Kubrick used to discuss?” I [Jon Ronson] ask.

“God, yes,” says Tony. “Sometimes late into the night. I was always trying to persuade him to turn away from them. But he was wedded to his sans serifs.”

Tony goes to his bookshelf and brings down a number of volumes full of examples of typefaces, the kind of volumes he and Kubrick used to study, and he shows them to me. “I did once get him to admit the beauty of Bembo,” he adds, “a serif.”

Ronson later meets Jan Harlan, Kubrick's executive producer and brother-in-law, who proclaimed that “Stanley loved typefaces.” Harlan disclosed Kubrick’s other passion—stationery:

“His great hobby was stationery. One time a package arrived with 100 bottles of brown ink. I said to Stanley, ‘What are you going to do with all that ink?’ He said, ‘I was told they were going to discontinue the line, so I bought all the remaining bottles in existence.’ Stanley had a tremendous amount of ink. … He loved stationery, pads, everything like that.”

What housed Kubrick’s typographic matter were his boxes, custom-designed by Kubrick himself. He wasn’t satisfied by boxes sold at stores and was compelled to create one better suited to his needs.

The University Archives and Special Collections Centre, University of the Arts London, inherited the Stanley Kubrick Archive in March 2007. Over 1,000 boxes whose eclectic contents—scripts, photography, correspondence, research, etc.—etch a hard path of filmic care and creativity.

Kubrik’s reputation for ruthless and devotedly painstaking film editing has become legendary. And it’s become clear that his attention to detail extended to typefaces and stationery. Clearly, props and actors alike, including typefaces and stationery, were recipients of the filmmaker’s exacting experience, and sometimes treated like elements of a chess game. As Kubrick noted, “You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it’s really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas.”

Kubrick’s path of boxes and their contents is evidence of the filmmaker’s rigorous pursuit of “better ideas,” with typefaces and stationery playing supporting roles.

Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Graphic and Web designer Julie Oya

Image courtesy of Julie Oya

The Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast initiative embracing the perspective of a designer in a succinct format. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Julie has lived and worked in London, Toronto, Vancouver, and New York as a motion graphics artist, graphic and web designer, knitter and crocheter, and photographer. Read about her insightful take on design and designing.

Previous Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Paul Buck and Ela Kosmaczewska of Zerofee

[G1 Report] Android Apps, Stephen Fry’s Review

It’s been awhile since my previous G1 Report. Since then, I think there have been 2–3 system upgrades. With each I was a bit nervous: seeing an icon representing upgrade and the progress bar filling in a few bits at a time. But eventually, in due time, a respectful one, the upgrade was complete. Would have been nice to see a bit count or time stamp besides the icon and progress bar. Afterwards, no summary of changes displayed; but doesn’t matter, because I don’t read them.

One notable change was the added user-interface elements to Gmail, including checkboxes that trigger related controls to Archive, assign a Label, or Delete an email. Also, in its default list form, a smidgen of the message is viewed only if the subject header happens to be a single word. Good little touches of making more controls visibly upfront, and packing more data in an already small space.

I was told, from someone at a mobile product maker, that applications are the value of mobile devices. Sounds obvious (as the iPhone commercials dictate), but I haven’t gotten used to exploring the Android Marketplace. And I should. Strategic News Service forecaster, Mark Anderson, reported his number-two hunch for 2009 which was:

“Similarly, the big news in the mobile world won’t be a slicker, newer cellphone—it will be smart phone applications. We’re talking billions in downloads,” he said. “In addition, because of their low cost and high volume, smart phone apps have the potential to replace mobile advertising – unless it can be ‘dragged through’ on an app.

One of my resolutions for this year is to play more with Android apps, considering there are some 5,000 at this writing, compared to the iPhone’s 25,000-plus applications, which more than justify its tagline “Apps for everything.” There’s only one app that I’ve downloaded and frequently access. It’s “Note Everything.” In creating a new note, three modes are offered: Regular text, freeform Paint, and Voice. Nifty. Double-tapping on a new note, set to regular text input, displays a virtual keyboard—a surprise, because a physical keyboard is already handily available. The virtual keyboard functioned well, but I’m still hooked on the sensation of a physical version.

Another discovery was a review by actor and writer Stephen Fry (with Hugh Laurie of the comedic duo Fry and Laurie). Here a are a few cherry-picked bits:

• “When I saw pictures on the web I thought, as did many, that the ugly stick had given the G1 a damned good thrashing, but in the hand and up close it’s much better than I expected. It has a gentle, somehow retro form factor that I find comfortable and appealing without eliciting screams of desire.”
• “The Market is where Android will prove itself. At the moment there is nothing even close to the number of programs that the App Store can boast, but the G1 is all about the future.”
• “There is a lot wrong with this phone, yet to my mind none of that fundamentally matters. These imperfections may make you delay your immediate purchase of an Android phone, but they needn’t. Chances are that with a good contract (T-Mobile are the G1’s only network in the US and the UK so far) you will be on a free upgrade path anyway. “
• “Unlocked phones seem unnecessarily expensive in Europe, where customs imposts make the device close to prohibitive for most pockets. One can bet that the G2 and G3 will better bear the luscious fruit of Open Source development before very long. Meanwhile, the G1 stands as a reasonably priced and impressive first shot from HTC and Android. “
• “The whole system can only improve and when it does it will truly give the iPhone a run for its money. Especially if Apple stays as tightly closed as they are now.”

Fry’s review is informative and a delight to read. It’s especially a good read coming from someone who doesn’t fit the stereotypical bill of a critic of information technology. Refreshing.