Welcome to The Very Daily Weblog of Joshua Blankenship



Coudal Partners has resurrected Layer Tennis (née Photoshop Tennis) and the first match is currently underway between illustrator Kevin Cornell and designer/programmer Shaun Inman with commentary by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber. You can also keep on on Twitter.

Fri 09.28.07 (0 comments)

Quote, “Group intelligence is multiplicative when idiots are involved - combining a half-wit with another half-wit does not result in a full-witted person, it results in a quarter-witted person (1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4).” The design curve of how to ruin a web design.

Fri 09.28.07 (1 comment)

The more time I spend on By Designers For Designers, the more I love the layout, especially the colors and event calendar implementation. Just grid-tastically delicious.

Fri 09.28.07 (1 comment)

Dear Reader, Where Should I Work?

The Blankenships landed in Boston on July 4th, which was the most unintentionally patriotic thing I’ve ever done. Almost three months later, I am currently without gainful employment, but doing just fine with freelance work, exploring contract opportunities, going to interesting job interviews, and getting some fun feedback on my resume. Thus, Boston is currently a magical land filled with opportunity.

That being said, I wanted to try an experiment. Some of you know me know me, some of you have been reading this blog and following my work for years now, and some of you are just popping in or discovering this site. With that broad range of readers and thoughts and opinions, I want to ask you a simple question.

What do you think I should do for a living? What does my ideal job look like?

Fri 09.28.07 (32 comments)

Tagged: An Entry, Work

Antoine Dufour and Tommy Gauthier play Jerry’s Breakdown together, on one guitar. It’s silly and endearing, so it’s easy to forget that Dufour is basically amazing.

Thu 09.27.07 (3 comments)

Interesting article (with actual research, imagine that) on Primary and Secondary actions in web forms and how to best differentiate for users. e.g. you fill in your details and hit submit (primary action) or cancel/reset (secondary action). Nerdy, but important.

Thu 09.27.07 (3 comments)

I am professionally defined by those with whom I do business…And I fervently believe that bigness achieved by acquiring dreary Clients is a losing proposition of the first order. Tom Peters, The Brand You 50

The Jacky Winter Group represents a ton of very talented Australian illustrators. I’m especially fond of Tin & Ed, but all the artists have unique styles worth checking out.

Wed 09.26.07 (0 comments)

Life without a friend is death without a witness. — Spanish Proverb

Stephen Hallgren coded up Grid Layouts to give web-developers a customizable grid that sits under their designs and turns on and off with a key command. It’s all Javascript and XHTML, and super easy to implement and use. Thank you, Stephen.

Tue 09.25.07 (3 comments)

Videos for Creatives collects various videos of designers, etc. into a daily blog.

Tue 09.25.07 (1 comment)

Quote, “Speed of communication begets speed of execution.” Interesting thoughts and rationales for open office plans in technology/web companies.

Mon 09.24.07 (2 comments)

Graphic Designer Michael Bierut uncovers his portfolio from 1978 and gives us a peek at the contents. It should be noted that it got him a job at famed design firm Vignelli Associates the following year, and he’s never had to show his portfolio to get a job since.

Mon 09.24.07 (1 comment)

Five Pleasant Surprises This Week

1. The outpouring of gushy awesome encouragement, job offers, freelance requests, and contract work from friends, family, dotcomrades, and total strangers.The friends and family sort of have to - it’s in their contract, but everyone else, you’re just going above and beyond.
2. Davis Square in Somerville, MA
3. Hearing the theme from 70’s TV show S.W.A.T. on the radio while simultaneously watching four teenage Hassidic Jewish kids in full garb cross the street, hats in various stages of askewness, Kosher bagged lunched in hand.
4. Arranging your home book library by book spine color is visually amazing.
5. Getting this via IM: “just thought I’d let you know, some of your work from PNFF was used as an example for experimental typography gone right in my 200 level typography class.”

Fri 09.21.07 (4 comments)

Tagged: Friday Five List

Free skull typeface. What are you still reading for? GO.

Fri 09.21.07 (1 comment)

Psst, Abe Lincoln, somebody stamped a hideously out-of-place purple 5 on the back of your bill. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says, “We wanted this redesigned bill to scream, ‘I am a five. I am a five.’ [and] eliminate any similarity or confusion on the part of the public between the $5 bill and the $100 bill.” I know I’m always handing out errant Benjamins by accident. I mean, the other 7 instances of the number 5 on old Abe just aren’t enough for me, because I’m an idiot.

Fri 09.21.07 (3 comments)

The site is a beast to navigate, but Christian Robert-Tissot has some amazing large-scale typography-based work like this, this, this, and this. It’s worth dealing with the annoying navigation.

Fri 09.21.07 (1 comment)

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