Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction by Matt Richtel

I usually scoff at articles and research that brand emerging technology as potentially harmful to human minds, but this New York Time article gives me pause. This article talks about how the constant stream of stimuli from computers and cellphones pose a challenge to learning and focusing. The article is not only backed with factual data, but includes insights and quotes from various teenagers, making it more relevant to me. One of the subjects, Allison Miller, sends and receives 27,000 text messages a month!

Read Article

Ideas for Generating Ideas by Nate Williams

I love reading other designers and illustrators processes for generating ideas. Nate’s great advice is applicable to a wide range of projects. Basically he breaks down his process in threes steps: Feed the subconscious, record and retrieve inspirational moments and ideas, and find patterns in ”good ideas”. He describes these steps further and offers some great visual examples.

Read Post

Linchpin by Seth Godin

According to Seth Godin, a linchpin is somebody in an organization who is indispensable. To become a linchpin, you have to become an artist, or by Godin’s definition, someone who does “emotional work”. This is work that matters, work that you put your heart and soul into, and work you choose over other alternatives. You can really feel Godin’s passion come through in the text and I believe it’s a great message for everyone, especially older generations struggling to fit within a ever changing work structure.

Buy Book

Appreciate It from Faust

Thanksgiving was yesterday but that is no excuse not to be thankful everyday. What better way to do this then participating in a nicely designed website! Simply contribute to what you are thankful for and be added to the page. It’s also fun to read what others are thankful for.

View Site

CSS3 For Web Designers

CSS3 For Web Designers by Dan Cederholm is the second book from A Book Apart. Like the first HTML5 For Web Designers book, it is a focused, clear, and quick read. I love the first one and Dan’s book doesn’t disappoint. I got more out of the 100 pages then in some of the more in-depth 500 page books on CSS. Can’t wait to implement some of the techniques!

Buy Book

A List Apart: Articles: Art Direction and Design

Dan Mall wrote a great article explaining the differences between design and art direction in the web. Although the article is successful at explaining these differences, I really enjoyed his examples of incorporating both disciplines. In the age of smaller budgets and quicker turnarounds, having two defined artisans is harder to come by. Best case scenario, the attributes of a good designer and good art director need to be fulfilled by one person.

Read Article

Gender Disparities in the Design Field

John Mindiola talks about gender issues in the design field in his Smashing Magazine article. Even though this is not a new subject, the articles sheds light into the perceptions, conditioning, and the status quo of females in the design industry. I believe in equality, so initially I thought gender doesn’t have an effect on design skills or success. I do believe previous experiences are what shape designers. Gender has a great impact on human experiences, so to me, the disparities in the design field are really a reflection of our society.

Read Article

Think Vitamin’s Free Accessibility Training Videos

Accessibility is a subject all designer and site owners should be familiar with. Think Vitamin has produced a number of videos on this subject and they have recently been releasing these video free! Highly recommended for some great advice on accessibility.

Watch Videos

Mad Men, Mad Props

Me and my wife Carmen are huge fans of the AMC show Mad Men and delight in picking apart a the typography and art in the props used in the show. Our observations are no comparison to Mark Simonson’s. Mark has been a designer, illustrator, and typographer since 1976 and in his article, he points out some of the typography mistakes in the Mad Men Show. For example, Mad Men’s opening sequence shows glimpses of actual ads from the period. One of the ads contains Lucinda Handwriting, which wasn’t created until 1992. These little mistakes don’t take me away from the show at all, but it’s still fun to see where they slipped up.

Read Article

I Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works by Nick Bilton

In Bilton’s book, he explain how technology and communication tools shape our present and future. Utilizing insights from social networking, “consumnivores”, content providers, and brain adaptation, he paints a argument that old media and communication is dead. If you are interested in the subject of new media, there is nothing completely earth shattering in this book, but still a really great read!

Get The Book

Firesheep In Wolves’ Clothing: Extension Lets You Hack Into Twitter, Facebook Accounts Easily

Developer Eric Butler has created a Firefox extension, Firesheep, which lets you eavesdrop on any open Wi-Fi network and capture users’ cookies. Basically, with this extension you can hijack other people’s social network connection. This is a pretty scary extension that exposes some of the vulnerabilities of the web but it’s positioned to push sites like Facebook and Twitter to secure their sites. I’m not a huge fan of this extension being out in the wild, but if it pushes for providers to secure their site, it will be welcomed.

Read Article

Planet Money Podcast

Ever since 2008, I have been struggling to grasp some of the finical and economic concepts that underpinned the finical meltdown. Luckily I found the Planet Money podcast. Your toes might be curling from the thought of listening to a podcast about economics, but trust me, this is a very informative and entertaining show.

If you need proof, listen to the October 26, 2010 Planet Money show “Stealing Our Way To A T-Shirt”. This episode is directly related to the design industry and how ideas and trends are stollen and created. Really fun stuff!

Listen to Podcast

Communications Arts 2010 Design Annual (Magazine)

The Communication Arts magazine’s 2010 Design Annual is out and it’s as inspirational as ever. There doesn’t seem to be any major design style changes in the work from the past. Like most years, the trends seem to build upon the previous years work. The texturized retro style seems to be gaining a stronger foothold in a bunch of the work. I love the design annuals but I wonder if they will soon be depreciated by the many design galleries online. Still, the experts that pick the winners will be hard to replace.

View Gallery of Winners

Making things hard to read ‘can boost learning

There is a really interesting article from the BBC by Cordelia Hebblethwaite about hard-to-read fonts. According to some scientists, difficult-to-read fonts make for better learning than easy-to-read fonts. In two different studies researchers found that harder to read font aid in recall. This is called “disfluency”. Basically, presenting information in a way that is harder to digest means a person has to concentrate more and leads to a “deeper processing” and then “better retrieval” afterwards.

I know this makes designers and purveyors of beautiful typography cringe, but I wonder if these findings can be ascribed to logos and branding. In a world of being bombarded with thousands of brands a day, the viewer digests typography differently than in the study. As a viewer, we don’t have time to try to read a font. We might gloss over the harder-to-read font for one that is visually compelling and relevant to our values. What do you think?

Read the Article

Hardboiled Web Design (Book)

I just started Andy Clarks’s Hardboiled Web Design and I am not too far in, but what I have read has been fun and informative. Hardboiled Web Design focuses on understanding why, when, and how to use the latest HTML5 and CSS3 technologies in everyday work. I am reading the PDF version on my iPad and really like the layout and illustrations used in the book. I don’t have the print edition, but I’m sure it will be as visually compelling.

Hardboilded Web Design

The Online Threat (Magazine)

There is an interesting article in the November 1st issue of the New Yorker about cyber war and cyber espionage. The article dissects wether we should be worried about a cyber war and the difference between cyber war and espionage. I usually roll my eyes at articles in the news or in newspapers about cyber war because the fear mongering, but this articles critically talks about the threat and possible private or government solutions to the problem.

Read the Article

Instagram

If you don’t know, Instagram is an iPhone app that makes it fun to share photos. Instagram includes a number of retro filters to transform the look and feel of a photo. From there you can post to all the usual social networks. This addicting app makes me constantly look for interesting compositions to photograph and share. Even if you don’t want to share any photos, I suggest using the app just for the inspirational photos! If you are on Instagram, follow me @rypearts!

Get Instagram