For those of us who dabble with vector programs like Illustrator day in and out, here’s an interesting piece of history – Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad, developed way back in 1963. Looking at the video, it seems quite advanced too (considering the computer itself was pretty much still in an infant stage).
Came across this interesting design commentary by Joseph Logan, describing how a transparent window in the milk carton (ostensibly a good idea to have a quick, real time, reliable way to tell how much milk is left) degenerated into something that is a whole lot less elegant, simply by adding more and more visual elements (inappropriately too):
A designer suggested adding a little window on the carton to provide something easier for making a shopping list than a rough weight estimate. The first round of design review probably added the volume markers, which are innocuous enough but unnecessary for the majority of milk drinkers. Subsequent rounds probably added the wholly useless picture of the milk jugs and the placement of all this visually distracting detritus.
Is there anything beyond the little windows that substantially improves your ability to make decisions about the volume of milk? Of course not.
What is actually happening here is that a potentially useful addition to the good old milk carton becomes something cluttered and misleading, and it smacks of committee work. Will any harm come of it? Probably not. At most, it might be a little more confusing than necessary to anyone who bothers to look at it, which probably won’t be too many of us. Imagine safety diagrams on an airplane or in a chemical plant, though; how much distraction or confusion would be necessary to cause an accident?
Hear hear~ that is also something that I come across once in a while in my day-to-day job. It’s quite easy to slip into the chasm of “isn’t more of something good better?”, and forget the delightful balance and restraint that must sometimes take priority instead. Or to push design concepts all the way to the extreme ends of a cross-matrix – where subtlety is erased and diminished.
Problematically, these are also typically calls that you can’t rationally make a rule of. How do you know when ‘too much’ is, in fact, too much? In these times, it simply boils down to good judgment, clarity of intent and experience.
Typically in the plant/botany section of a nature museum, you’d find specimens of various plant species pressed flat and preserved in formaldehyde. These flat-pressed clippings lose much of their vibrancy in color, as well as the 3-dimensionality that one would naturally find in real, live plants.
In comes glass artists Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf. Using glass, they are able to sculpt and replicate the plant’s 3-dimensional properties and color, giving an almost indistinguishable form from the real plants, including every intricate detail:
Just how good they are? Apart from the samples in the photos above –
The astonishing accuracy of Harvard’s glass flowers has surprised many of the museum’s visitors, who, on seeing the display, ask to see the glass flowers.
Amazing!
[via Curious Expeditions]
Honda’s been building a reputation of making ads requiring intense, meticulous coordination and touching hearts one way or another – I’ve covered quite a few of them in this blog. Their latest ‘Let It Shine’ brings together a whole lot of (obviously Honda) cars on a field, using their headlights as little pixels that animate to the tune of a ‘Let it Shine’.
Not exactly breathtaking, but fresh nonetheless! By Wieden + Kennedy.
Clever business card design for a dentist.
The Chinese language is composed of characters that have descended from sets of pictograms – stylized, simpflied drawings of the mountains, the sky, etc. into a few key strokes. With this as foundation it grows on to a full set of thousands of character.
It was thus quite interesting for me when I came upon Christoph Niemann’s “The Pet Dragon” work, which tells the story about, well I suppose, a pet dragon. However, unlike other story books, the illustration blends itself with Chinese characters, helping children learn and associate those (potentially) unfamiliar characters with something much more easy to understand – a picture:
I thought the form-association between the characters and the illustration makes a great bridge for Chinese-language learners, and certainly less boring than simple rote learning (plus, you get a free story to ride along!).
Just discovered yet another nifty design aggregator called “The Design Inspiration“-
The site covers a few domains: logos, illustrations, websites, photos, and patterns. I’m not sure exactly how frequently it updates – judging by a quick glance at the contents it seems pretty good, though I’d say its application is more likely towards whiling away time, browsing away.
It’s just too easy to get carried away munching these eye candies – the challenge really lies in whether you are able to internalize or really ‘get inspired’ by browsing like this. Still, a good find!
We’ve all become quite acquainted with the Nigerian scammers – attempting to cheat naive people into wiring money over to some dubious overseas account in exchange for the hope of some grand sum of inheritance, business, etc.
But this “Mr. Robert Dutu” gotta be one of those with (at least the appearance of) some honesty – even while he attempts to scam:
This is just a part of the conversation -check out the full transcript: it includes gems such as
Mr. Robert Dutu says: and i know my God will forgive because i pray to him to replenish the pockets of my clients with double of whatever they loss
It’s quite funny to see the intelligent conversation even as Mr Dutu still attempts to get Mike to wire money over, despite knowing that he’s not a most-likely prey. Can we say, professionalism?
Just a little feel-good, mashed-up MTV of people around the world singing “Stand by Me” in their own instruments and interpretation. Perfect for your Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Whateverday blues.
We have seen quite a few “if the earth was 100 people” type of illustrations, typically to make us realize the actual proportions of various metrics if we talk globally rather than our typical Western-centric impressions.
Here’s yet another set. Graphic artist Toby Wong used simple vector graphics to communicate the various metrics about the global population through a series of posters.
