may
15
2012
Europe's Borders
Awesome animation of Europe's changing borders over time, via Information Aesthetics.
apr
22
2012
Who Made That Pie Chart? | NYTimes.com
Hilary Greenbaum and Dana Rubinstein write, “William Playfair — a businessman, engineer and economics writer from Scotland — created the first known pie chart in 1801.”
apr
02
2012
You’re Listening To A Music Instrument Made Of Jell-O | Co.Design
Mark Wilson writes, “Noisy Jelly is a project by Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard, two students at L’Ensci Les Ateliers. They experiment with agar agar jellies, placed upon sensors that convert their vibrations into music with the help of arduino processing.” I love this, and I want my own kit.
mar
16
2012
The Science of Cherry Blossoms, Illustrated
I love this video of the Washington Post’s Patterson Clark speed-sketching the phases of cherry blossom blooming. (If you can’t see the video above, it’s available on washingtonpost.com.)
mar
05
2012
SND Best of Digital Design 2012
NPR received four nods in this year’s contest: Silver Medal: Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 BillionAward of Excellence: Japan And Haiti: Picturing The UnimaginableAward of Excellence: NPR MusicAward of Excellence: NPR Infinite Player Congratulations to my colleagues and …
feb
29
2012
Elephants and Whales on the London Tube | The Atlantic Cities
“Animals on the Underground is an ongoing project that casts the London Underground as a wild menagerie of elusive animals, who disappear in and out the thicket of abstract lines which comprise the map of the Tube.”
dec
18
2011
The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave Computing a Human Face | NeuroTribes
A look at Susan Kare’s early history with Apple, including some of her gridpaper sketches for the original Mac OS iconography.
I’m starting to think Lego is evil | Dan Sinker
Dan Sinker laments the current state of the Lego product line, dominated by movie tie-in model kits. “The reality is that the unisex, open-ended, building and imaginative creation sets that my peers normally associate with Lego are gone.”
dec
12
2011
Fun With Colored Pencils
Something to brighten a Monday afternoon.
nov
17
2011
Who Left A Tree, Then A Coffin In The Library? | Krulwich Wonders | NPR
Gorgeous book sculptures left in Edinburgh libraries, and the question of whether to unmask their source.
nov
11
2011
2012 Letterpress Calendar | Pyramid Atlantic Letterpress
Self-promoting PSA: The 2012 letterpress calendar project I worked on is now available for purchase. (I designed/printed the January page.) $30 if you pick it up in person; $35 if you want it shipped to you.
nov
10
2011
26.2 Miles, 46 Sketches | Abstract Sunday | NYTimes.com
NYT’s Christoph Niemann ran the New York Marathon this past weekend — and brought his sketchbook along.
A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design
A critique of “futuristic” touchscreen interfaces by Bret Victor. “The next time you make a sandwich, pay attention to your hands. Seriously! Notice the myriad little tricks your fingers have for manipulating the ingredients and the utensils and all the other objects involved in this enterprise. Then compare your experience to sliding around Pictures Under Glass. Are we really going to accept an Interface Of The Future that is less expressive than a sandwich?” (Via Matt Thompson)
oct
31
2011
Datavis and Journalism
An interesting lecture from Amanda Cox of the New York Times at the Eyeo Festival earlier this year: (If you can’t see the video above, it’s available on Vimeo.) Data visualization should probably play a slightly different role in journalism …
oct
17
2011
The Psychologist’s View of UX Design | UX Magazine
A useful list of factors to consider from Susan Weinschenk.
oct
14
2011
When Maps Shouldn’t Be Maps | Matthew Ericson
The NYT graphics director writes, “But sometimes the reflexive impulse to map the data can make you forget that showing the data in another form might answer other — and sometimes more important — questions.”
oct
11
2011
2012 Letterpress Calendar
January 2012 is done! After last week’s pressure print experiment, I sent my Illustrator design off to Boxcar Press to be converted into a photopolymer plate for printing. The printing session itself went incredibly smoothly, and I was able to …
oct
10
2011
Casa Hurtsapong
I meant to post this back in July. For letterpress happy hour one week at Pyramid Atlantic, I typeset / printed a small set of personal notecards. “Casa Hurtsapong” (a portmanteau Rob and I came up with years ago as …
sep
09
2011
The Dark Art of Pricing | Jessica Hische
Really useful post about things to consider when pricing illustration / lettering freelance work.
sep
07
2011
U-Haul SuperGraphics
A collection of vintage and modern illustrations printed on the sides of U-Haul trucks and trailers.
sep
02
2011
U.S. Unemployment: A Historical View | WSJ.com
“Track the national unemployment rate since 1948 — the first year in which the government provides data that can reliably be compared with the current rate. Numbers are seasonally adjusted.” Nice heatmap / timeline treatment.
aug
31
2011
Inkling
This evolution of the Wacom tablet looks really cool. Clip a special sensor onto your sketchpad of choice, draw with a Wacom-supplied, pressure-sensitive pen, and the contraption will capture your sketch and import it in vector format to your computer. …
