Coup de coeur pour les travaux de ce designer Ross Moody et de son studio 55his basé aux Etats-Unis. Il édite avec beaucoup d’imagination et d’inventivité une sélection de cartes et d’affiches/posters en édition limitée. A découvrir dans la suite de l’article.
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I’m very likely the odd ball, but August is by far my favorite month of the year. August is celebrating my grandmother’s birthday (she’ll be 102 this year), it’s having a beer on the patio and watching the sun set, it’s long days, it’s cicadas singing, it’s getting ice cream and sitting on a bench with nothing else important to do. August is the perfect month to simply be.
My resolution for July was to evaluate and reconfigure our family’s routines, schedules, and goals. This happened without much stress or anxiety. One night my husband and I sat at our kitchen table and reviewed what routines we’d been following, identified which ones were no longer meeting our needs, and then created a new routine chart. So far, the new routines are working well and our house is back to running smoothly.
Our family routines include meal preparations, meal cleanup, meal planning, laundry, trash, yard work, exercising, getting ready for the day and bed time, general pick up around the house, room-by-room intense cleaning, paying bills, mail processing, pet care, and running errands to the grocery store, bank, and gas station. If you do not have routines in place for these recurrent activities, check out the article “Establishing routines” for some guidance.
We went through the same evaluation process with our work schedules and our family goals, and we’re back to feeling like we have a handle on our time. It’s nice to know where you want to go and how you plan to get there.
My goal for August is to get our “In case of …” files up to date. Since we moved, some of the information in my file is no longer accurate and it needs to be updated. Since no one, including me, likes to think about “in case of …” situations, it’s best that I do it during a month that I find especially cheerful.
If you do not have an “In case of …” file, let me recommend that you make one in August. If you have one, this month might be a good time to review the file’s contents to ensure they’re fully accurate. Your loved ones will feel more comfortable knowing this file exists, and so will you.
What are your resolutions and/or goals for August? How did you do with any resolutions or goals you made for July? If you have annual resolutions instead of monthly resolutions, how are these advancing? Are you on track to accomplish what you are hoping to by the year’s end? Share your experiences in the comments.
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Erin’s 2011 monthly resolutions: January, February, March, April, May, June, and July.
Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.
Think before acting. Sounds right, doesn’t it? Think before starting to design. Yup. Do some research, learn more about the requirements, the people, the activities. Then design. It all makes sense. Which is precisely why I wish to challenge it. Sometimes it makes sense to act first, think afterwards.
In the real world of product development, time is always short and budgets limited, so it is almost impossible to start with research. “Yes,” the product manager will say, “I know we should do some research first, but we don’t have time, we are too far behind schedule. But for the next project, we will start with research, OK?” It never happens. The next project will also start out with no time, behind schedule. In fact, let me create a law:
Norman’s Law of Product Development: A project is behind schedule and over its budget the day it is started.
Today we teach the importance of doing design research first, then going through a period of ideation, prototyping and iterative refinement. Lots of us like this method. I do. I teach it. But this makes no sense when practical reality dictates that we do otherwise. If there is never enough time to start with research, then why do we preach such an impractical method? We need to adjust our methods to reality, not to some highfalutin, elegant theory that only applies in the perfect world of academic dreams. We should develop alternative strategies for design.
Eco-friendly tasting spoons save the planet one fro-yo bite at a time
Ever wondered what happens to tasting spoons after you’ve sampled the latest fro-yo flavor? Peggy Cross did and found the little plastic utensils usually end up sitting in landfills for centuries. Drawing on her experience as a marketing director, the mother of two boys applied her knowledge of efficient packaging and distribution to spoon design. The result is EcoTensil, a biodegradable scoop made from flat shiny paperboard. Fold the two dots together and presto—instant taste-tester!
Spoons biodegrade in two-five weeks (compare to six months or longer for other biodegradable tasters) and the charmingly simple design packages more efficiently and ships flat, saving on transportation energy costs. EcoTensils come in a tiny version, the EcoTaster, and a full-size version, the EcoSpoon. There’s even an EcoSecurity model designed for prisons and psych wards, an alternative that eliminates the danger of sharpened utensils and is more humane than fingers-only eating.
A starter kit of 1,000 EcoTasters runs $36, with prices increasing from there. They sell online from EcoTensil.
 | Accessories aren’t just fun to collect because of all the different styles and designs out there. They are also an important part of our ensembles. Accessories can take a would-be-boring outfit and make it enviable and eye-catching. Different accessories can take the same LBD from edgy girls-night-out to classy business dinner with the boss. They help us express who we are and make our style ours. In short, they help us make a statement. So we caught up with a few of our favorite bloggers to get some inspiration on how they use their favorite statement pieces to help complete their own personal style. See what they had to say, then click on the slideshow to see our pick for favorite statement pieces. |
Interaction Designer
Hulu
Seattle, WA
Do you spend your day critiquing the world as an object of design? If you’re an interaction designer with strong organizational skills who does not believe in the conventional constraints of print vs. web vs. video and thrives on variety and challenge, we’re interested in talking with you.
Hulu is looking for a talented and multifaceted UX Designer with experience and a proven track-record to help in designing the next generation video experiences for devices and the web. The ideal candidate combines a world-class design sensibility and skills; a desire to make a huge impact in the new and rapidly growing online distribution channel for premium video; a passion for working in a fast-paced, chaotic environment with intense, demanding, but fun-loving co-workers.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
The pictograms for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 were unveiled last week by studio Tangent Graphic. Using the concentric rings of the 2014 logo, the symbols reference the “decisive moment” of each of the Games’ 17 sporting events…
The logo for Glasgow 2014 – the 20th Commonwealth Games – was launched in March last year by Marque (above left). It features a letter ‘G’ for Glasgow surrounded by three concentric circles (or parts of circles), with the solid red outline representing the number 20.
The length of the other concentric lines then relate to the number of sports on the programme (the yellow ring is 17/20th of a full circle); and the 11 days of the competition (the blue line represents 11/20ths of a circle). David Airey over at Logo Design Love has a good write up on Marque’s work.
Tangent based its 17 pictogram designs on elements of the logo and what they call the “key decisive moments” in each sporting event.
“This is the moment that time, data or measurement is captured, the moment that defines winners,” they explain. “Years of training and preparation culminating in a split second, it is the most dramatic and climactic moment of the event. This is the moment we’re capturing for the pictograms.”
The pictograms are based on the concentric rings that appear in the logo and use identical line thickness and spacing. According to the studio, this “dynamic foundation gives the pictogram both energy and motion.” Here are some of our favourites:
Athletics
Badminton
Boxing
Judo
Squash
Table tennis
Triathlon
Weightlifting
Wrestling
Don’t miss out – there’s nothing like CR in print. Our August Summer Reading issue contains our pick of some of our favourite writing on advertising, illustration and graphic design as well as a profile of Marion Deuchars plus pieces on the Vorticists, Total Design, LA Noire and much more.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine and get Monograph.
Découverte du travail et du talent de Shan Jiang, un illustrateur qui travaille pour l’agence Ilovedust Ltd. depuis 2005. Une sélection de visuels variés avec un style intéressant. Ses créations colorés, détaillées et fraîches sont à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.
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Dezeen Watch Store: Jak, the second watch by New York designer Karim Rashid for Italian brand Alessi, is now available at Dezeen Watch Store.
This simple watch has a digital face with a backlight and a button to switch between time and date display.
The strap and oval case are a single piece made from moulded polyurethane. The watch fastens with a buckle in the same colour.
Jak is available in green, pink, white, purple, grey and black.
See Kaj, Karim Rashid’s first watch for Alessi, here. Other Alessi watches on Dezeen Watch Store include the cat-shaped Neko by SANAA and classic Record by Achille Castiglioni.
Dezeen Watch Store is a carefully curated online store specialising in watches by named designers and boutique brands.
See all our stories about watches »
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| Kaj by Karim Rashid for Alessi | Neko by SANAA for Alessi | Record by Achille Castiglioni for Alessi |
I’m so excited that the dottie angel book is in the production stage at the printer! It is just a matter of weeks until the book is finished. This is always a bittersweet part of the process—for me as a designer and publisher, so much of the excitement and fun of a book is conceptualizing it… dreaming of its format, mood, special features. The design phase is a joy and privilege, especially with such amazing content and imagery from Tif Fussell. And now the book is at the stage where it leaves me and graduates into a real hold-it-in-your-hands book. And with all the special features and extra goodies I’ve planned, this book will really be a tactile delight.
Throughout the month, I’ll be revealing sneak peeks at the book and its goodies. But first, let me introduce you to Tif, aka dottie angel, and her world at Mossy Shed…
(Thank you to everyone who has preordered so far—your support is much appreciated. And thank you for your patience—the book is a couple months later than originally planned; I’m still getting used to a new pace as I balance work and motherhood. The book will ship in late August. If you order it as part of the Book Bundle, you will receive The Elegant Cockroach, Work/Life 2 and A Collection a Day now, and dottie will be quick to follow.)
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
