Archive for September, 2008
Imagine if everything you produced—all the brochures and packaging—came back to you for you to dispose of.
— Harsh Purohit, Cognito Advertising
Sometimes, I think spam subject lines mean the opposite of their intent.
According to this list, Digg founder Kevin Rose has over 63,000 followers on Twitter, second only to Obama. And since I doubt Barack himself is texting away at Where In the World is the Presidential Hopeful?, that makes Rose the most popular actual user of Twitter. (Semi-related: according to BusinessWeek, Rose’s favorite Twitter-er is Cobra Commander.)
For the most consistently well-edited (and I mean that in an editorial sense) collection of current news and events photography on the web, make a habit of visiting The Boston Globe’s The Big Picture. Alan Taylor does an amazing job of making it the go-to spot for great imagery. For example: Hurricane Ike and the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games.
Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted. The older I get, the truer this…seems to be. Especially in industries that are more relationship-driven, than idea-driven.
— Hugh MacLeod, ostensibly excerpted from his new book
1. Sleeping
2. Napping
3. Marinating steak
4. Cooking steak
5. Enjoying steak
YouTube math: Ukulele + weirdly-engaging voice + Bon Iver cover + doubletime = Bridgette Semler’s cover of Flume
Bon Iver themselves did a lovely rendition of Flume on Conan O’Brien this week, too. If you haven’t given them a fair listen yet, I highly recommend you do.
And while we’re on the topic, how about a spontaneous acapella version of For Emma?
Quote, “The only thing I want to hear come out of [Matt] Damon’s mouth is ‘What is Tredstone?’” says YouTube commenter chilltownbraves in reply to this video of Damon condemning VP-nominee Sarah Palin. I find it interesting that the kneejerk reaction to actors speaking out politically is typically “well, who are they to say?” I also find it interesting that I simultaneously kinda agree with Damon and also love a YouTube comment poking fun at him.
I’ve been playing with Wufoo this morning to create some quick web forms. I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed using a web app so much that I upgraded to the paid version almost immediately. Great UI, customer service, pricing structure, reporting, CSS customization, API, etc. and it’s all super-flexible.
Start being wrong and suddenly anything is possible. You’re no longer infallible. You’re in the unknown. There’s no way of knowing what can happen, but there’s more chance of it being amazing than if you try to be right. Of course, being wrong is a risk…Risks are a measure of people. People who won’t take them are trying to preserve what they have.
— Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be
Lovely infographic from Very Small Array depicting where Craigslist Missed Connections occurred. Dorothy has great work all around.
Within a few days of starting to use Daytum to collect and display personal data I realize it’s already a part of my daily routine. It’s not a big deal; add a bookmark to my daily folder, make sure to keep a decently accurate mental picture of what I’ve done during my day, login and capture the data. It might take all of 5 minutes a day.
But one more thing? How in the world do I have time for one more thing, right? Easy, I made it. (Easy for you to say, Blankenship. You have a fairly flexible job. You don’t have kids. You work fast. Etc.) 100 years ago we didn’t have time for television. 30 years ago we didn’t have time for the internet. Did we suddenly get more hours in the day? No, we made time. We moved our schedule around to fit in something we wanted.
Next time you “don’t have time,” it’s ok to admit you just don’t want to make time because that thing obviously isn’t important enough to you to change your schedule. And if it’s not that important, you shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place.
- Juno-esque Checkout Girl: Woah. Somebody’s a healthy eater.
- Me: We try.
- Juno-esque Checkout Girl: No, seriously. Are from around here?
- Me: I’m SO from around here.
- Bagger Dude: [entering scene] Woah. That’s a lot of fruit and veggie.
- Me: [sigh]
1. Cartesian Coordinate Systems
2. Leather-making
3. Screenprinting
4. Statistics related to Data Graphics
5. How commercial/residential loans work
Quite a few of the infographics from the upcoming documentary I.O.U.S.A. have made their way online. YouTube has a few clips like this lovely one. Motion graphics designer Brian Oakes is responsible and his portfolio is full of equally-well-executed work.
Related: Univers Ultra Condensed is apparently the font of choice for info graphics these days. Design accordingly.
I am a filter. A cherry-picker. I am often an editor, sifting through and providing occasional commentary. For some, I point you in the direction of interesting hyperlinks in a variety of areas so you don’t have to do the work.
I wonder what happens when someone with a somewhat established role/direction on the web decides to veer elsewhere? Are you drawn here by my instincts and my taste, or by some other aspect of personality or adherence to a role?
I say all that to say this.
Clutter and overload are not an attribute of information they are failures of design.
— Edward Tufte
Within a few minutes of getting my invite to Daytum, I had set up a few graphs and statements. After a few hours, I got obsessive and had a date-specific pie-chart of all the addresses I’ve lived at based on how many months I spent at each one.
I’m a sucker for solid information graphics. And I obviously love the web. Designer Nicolas Felton (client work at Megafone) has put out his personal annual report for the past three years and I distinctly recall thinking it was a great idea, it just needed a web framework to capture all that data easily and then graphically represent it.
This collaboration with Ryan Case does that, with gusto. Quote, “Daytum is a home for collecting and communicating your daily data. Begin tracking anything you can count and display the results immediately.” Daytum is still in private beta, but you can go and request an invite. In the meantime, you can find me at daytum.com/blankenship where much info graphic fun will continue to occur.
Quote, “If you’re hiring for people to work online, I can’t imagine not screening people [on the social web]. This is the work, and you can watch people do it for real before you hire them.” — Seth Godin, excerpted from Learning from a summer intern program
Godin is discussing his an intern selection process, which involved creating a Facebook group and watching potential interns interact there, but it applies to any role I think. At NewSpring we’ve been interviewing for several web-centric communications roles lately, doing initial talks via Skype video, which is the perfect way to see if someone can hold your attention in that medium. When I look at a designer’s portfolio and they don’t pay attention to how users interact with the web, chances are they’re not a good fit for our team. This stuff is important.
If you don’t understand the medium, how can you possibly be effective within it?
