Media Care and Feeding [view: normal]

Giving back to Twitter department: earlier in the month I asked people who follow me on Twitter for recommendations for new typefaces.

What I was looking for was an alternative to the typeface Klavika, which I quite like; it’s among the very best fonts that have been released in the recent past, in my opinion. Inconveniently for me, I somewhat subjectively regard Klavika as having been ‘claimed’...

Fifteen Brooklyn illustrators reminds us of various other useful applications for newsprint. On sale for US$10.

Things that have been keeping me from blogging: raising a brand new baby, having grown-up time with my girlfriend, walking my dog, holding down a day job and, now finally revealed: working on Basic Maths, a brand new theme for WordPress that I designed with my friend Allan Cole.

After months of plugging away at in during whatever free time we’ve been able to find, we’re finally releasing it into...

Last Wednesday The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win their twenty-seventh World Series. After a nine year title drought, the victory predictably thrilled Yankees fans like myself while also re-igniting the old complaint that the franchise is a bully in the baseball market, that the team uses an obscenely resourceful payroll to effectively and unfairly buy championships.

Actua...

Various comics artists interpret their favorite literary figure/author/character. Pretty entertaining.

“The film is currently in production with a scheduled release date of spring 2010.”

The Times’ T Magazine interviews the inventor of the bagless vacuum on his latest invention.

The noted interface and usability expert identifies and solves the creeping problem of iPhone users running out space for all of their apps. “I have purposely made this new design compatible with the old, both so users wouldn’t face a sharp new learning curve and so that it might better pass the ‘Steve Test’: This new iPhone Springboard, unless and until such time as a user chooses to invoke the n...

Lists like these are no-win propositions, as just about everyone is bound to find at least a few albums with which to disagree. Case in point: I wouldn’t mind one bit if I never hear the albums that rank at numbers 2, 4, 7, 16, 18 or 20 again. Ever. On the other hand, I could listen to the number 1 album on loop. Forever.

New project from illustrator Jessica Hische. “Each day, a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap will be posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere.” Here’s my favorite so far.

Whether France’s proposed Photoshop retouching notification law is a valuable idea in the interest of the public good or a misguided example of government overreaching, I can’t say. But I’m pretty sure that it’s a debate worth having. In case you hadn’t heard, earlier this month fifty politicians put a law in front of French parliament under which digitally manipulated images would bear the somewh...

The creator of “Ren & Stimpy” and an unsparing critic of substandard animation takes on last weekend’s box office champion. Even if you have no interest in this minor children’s movie, this review is notable as a fascinating look inside an animator’s brain. Kricfalusi views “Meatballs” through a real craftsman’s lens, revealing much about what makes for ambitious animation. And he casts a cold eye...

A sad loss. Fuchs was one of the defining voices in mid-20th century illustration, synthesizing abstraction, realism and commercialism in a manner uniquely suited to the character of American life. Obituary at The Washington Post, and see some examples of his work in this Flickr set. ...

An eye-opening look at how our insatiable demand for gadgets, and our inattention to their power consumption, have dramatically increased demand for electricity. “The proliferation of personal computers, iPods, cellphones, game consoles and all the rest amounts to the fastest-growing source of power demand in the world. Americans now have about 25 consumer electronic products in every household, c...

“I think it’s indicative of a VC-induced cancer that’s infecting our industry and killing off the next generation. I don’t know the full backstory, but I’d bet this sale was encouraged by a Mint investor… But here’s what happened: Intuit, last decade’s leader in personal finance, just became the next decade’s leader in personal finance. Mint had their number, but they sold it for US$170 million.” ...

As a Yankees fan, I should say that the fact that I’m posting this is not intended as schadenfreude, because I honestly have nothing against the Metropolitans. I only wanted to point out how devastatingly Sean Engelhardt’s well-executed information graphic paints a portrait of a disastrous season — I mean just look at those long swaths of red and the big names next to them. And that’s without even...

The cover story for the September 2009 issue of Wired takes a look at the current state of Craigslist and the challenges it faces as it continues to evolve. In a sidebar, the magazine’s amazing art director Scott Dadich invited several designers to re-imagine and redesign Craigslist itself.

In addition to inviting contributions from SimpleScott, who was the former design director at

“…an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. We do this because we believe that any data that you create in (or import into) a product is your own. We help and consult other engineering teams within Google on how to ‘liberate’ their products.”

Notepads shaped like an iPhone and pre-printed with an iPhone bezel design, ideal for sketching up app ideas. Pretty clever idea from my friends at Inventive Labs and The Jacky Winter Group in Australia.

Writing in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, two attorneys raise serious questions about the accuracy of the definitive book on the Black Sox scandal: “The lack of supporting information in [the author’s] meticulously indexed notes suggests that the book may not be much more than fiction, or, at the very most, a summary of inflated press accounts.” Though the book was published decades after the fact it is historically...

An unexpected look at the design of passageways in a somewhat random selection of science fiction movies from the past several decades. While entertaining, this smart, brief write-up only whets your appetite for a more in-depth look at the subject. Via Daring Fireball.

Opening today with a reception on 15 Sep, this exhibition promises “a 50-year retrospective of nearly 100 works created by [Glaser] for the College, where he has been on the faculty since 1960 and currently serves as acting chairman. The exhibition will include the original artwork for the iconic posters seen by generations of New Yorkers as part of SVA’s ongoing subway campaign, preparatory sketches that...

About a week ago, Laura and I packed some bags and took a taxi to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The baby’s original due date had been 4 August, so when we checked into the hospital, we were already fifteen days late and Laura had agreed with her midwifery practice that it was time to induce labor. Roughly thirty hours later, Laura gave birth to our beautiful, ...

The other night I watched Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 psychological thriller “The Conversation” for the first time, I realized, in at least fifteen years. In the intervening decade and a half it had always stayed in my mind as one of the most delicately effective, nearly pitch-perfect movies I’d ever seen; Coppola had just come off of making the first “Godfather” and would go on to direct its even...