Notes to Self

"A central aesthetic principle in Japan is simplicity, but it is different from simplicity in the..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:23:18 -0500

“

A central aesthetic principle in Japan is simplicity, but it is different from simplicity in the West. Let me explain the difference by comparing cooking knives. The knives made by the German company, Henckel, for example, are well crafted and easy to use because they are highly ergonomic. The thumb automatically finds its place when you grab the knife.

Japanese cooks who have special skills prefer knives without any ergonomic shape. A flat handle is not seen as raw or poorly crafted. On the contrary, its perfect plainness is meant to say, “You can use me whichever way suits your skills.” The Japanese knife adapts to the cook’s skill (not to the cook’s thumb).

”

- Kenya Hara On Japanese Aesthetics

"We like lists because we don’t want to die."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:46:15 -0500

“We like lists because we don’t want to die.”

- Interview with Umberto Eco (Thank you Johanna)

Faking It

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:56:33 -0500

viafrank:

“How do you get those uneven edges in your illustrations?”
“I draw them, unevenly.”

“What’s the best way to get this to look like it’s cut out of paper?”
“Cut it out of paper.”

“What typeface are you using? It looks so much like handwriting.”
“That’s my handwriting.”

These are all real questions I’ve been asked by folks. At lectures, in class, over email. It makes me feel like I’m in the business of serving up plain, glaring answers.

“Care to shed some enlightenment, Frank?”
“Hm, I don’t know. How about a big pile of obvious?”

Sorry folks, the most evident way of doing something is typically the way that I do it. No secret labs, no special tools, no computer gee-whizzery.

Disappointing, isn’t it? I’m not surprised that these people are asking these questions. I think everyone wants a peek into someone else’s process. What surprises me is that they infer there isn’t an easy, obvious answer to their questions. There’s a digital silver bullet somewhere, and damned if they aren’t going to find it. But still, surely people still know that handwriting something and scanning it in is an option, rather than using a typeface?

What’s interesting to me is that these questions are being raised because some peoples’ default states are to “fake it.” Maybe that’s a natural response to being constantly presented with things that aren’t real. Maybe it’s from working with tools whose reach is so wide, it’s difficult to grasp where their edges truly lie. The issue is that I think that faking it is turning an awful lot of creative processes that have the potential to be deep oceans into shallow puddles. It’s weakening our physical connection to our work.

Our audiences have lower standards too. It’s unusual for them to be confronted with authenticity. When confronted with it, they’re startled by it. They don’t want to believe it and their first response is generally to scream “fake!” But, no green screen. No movie special effects. No camera tricks. Nothing that’s kind of like this other real thing but isn’t quite it. It is what it is. And it really happened. I hadn’t really realized it until recently, but authenticity is special now. Authenticity is special now.

“Wait, are you telling me they really released all of these bouncy balls down this big hill?” Yes I am. And if you have the choice, I think you should do it that way too.

Love this. Russell Davies on Playing Pretend

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:11:12 -0500

Love this. Russell Davies on Playing Pretend

Birds. (via benjaminpalmer)

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:06:16 -0500

Birds. (via benjaminpalmer)

Charles Eames said this in 1978! His grandson, Eames Demitrios,...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:22:30 -0500

Charles Eames said this in 1978! His grandson, Eames Demitrios, talks about design as a way of life in TED: The Design Genius of Ray and Charles Eames

Jonathan Harris pulls a Thoreau and moves into a cabin in the...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:22:00 -0500

Jonathan Harris pulls a Thoreau and moves into a cabin in the woods. World Building in a Crazy World is a digital Walden: in deck form, presented at a Media Conference, yet not lacking in heart or breadth.

“Time is a material.” Matt Jones of Berg’s...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:48:00 -0400

“Time is a material.”

Matt Jones of Berg’s presentation, “All the time in the world” is a springboard into so many interesting avenues regarding time, space and design. Seen here is Michel Gondry’s lo-fi “making of” video for the Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar video.

"If an interaction is fun, design it with more friction. If it’s boring, design it with less...."

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:54:33 -0400

“If an interaction is fun, design it with more friction. If it’s boring, design it with less. Don’t blindly make everything faster and easier.”

- Joey Roth

"Note to self: More levity. Less worry. Stop being so meta and just make stuff, not making stuff..."

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:12:01 -0400

“Note to self: More levity. Less worry. Stop being so meta and just make stuff, not making stuff about making stuff. That sucks.”

- Frank Chimero

"I find it really amazing how close it is to sports. Even with writing, I can appreciate it even more..."

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:37:20 -0400

“I find it really amazing how close it is to sports. Even with writing, I can appreciate it even more right now because it’s newer to me. Going over a paragraph, going over and over and over it – at some point it starts hurting the same way it does when you go running.”

- Christoph Niemann on the creative process in Short Deadlines Make You Think Straight

"Don’t worry if someone else is already working on your idea. I’m certain they are, but they are..."

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:50:16 -0400

“Don’t worry if someone else is already working on your idea. I’m certain they are, but they are decidedly not you and it’s the you that makes your idea unique.”

- Rands In Repose: Hurry

(via inboxzero)

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:06:02 -0400

(via inboxzero)

"Coveting possessions is unhealthy. Here’s how I look at it: All of the computers on Ebay are..."

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:15:52 -0400

“

Coveting possessions is unhealthy. Here’s how I look at it:

All of the computers on Ebay are mine. In fact, everything on Ebay is already mine. All of those things are just in long term storage that I pay nothing for. Storage is free.

When I want to take something out of storage, I just pay the for the storage costs for that particular thing up to that point, plus a nominal shipping fee, and my things are delivered to me so I can use them. When I am done with them, I return them to storage via Craigslist or Ebay, and I am given a fee as compensation for freeing up the storage facilities resources.

This is also the case with all of my stuff that Amazon and Walmart are holding for me. I have antiques, priceless art, cars, estates, and jewels beyond the dreams of avarice.

The world is my museum, displaying my collections on loan. The James Savages of the world are merely curators.

As I am the curator of their things, and thus together we all share the world.

”

- A fine comment from one Pastabagel on Collect ‘em all! (via Code for Something w/ a fist-bump for Johanna)

"You don’t throw away your books when you buy a computer. You keep both. The beauty of living in the..."

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:46:48 -0400

“You don’t throw away your books when you buy a computer. You keep both. The beauty of living in the present day is you don’t abandon the past. The past co-exists.”

- Stephen Fry (via inky via merlin)

"Callbacks must be a symbol denoting the method to call, a string to be evaluated! A block to be..."

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:51:02 -0400

“Callbacks must be a symbol denoting the method to call,
a string to be evaluated!
A block to be invoked! Or,
an object responding to the callback method.”

- Rails is being quite poetic today (line breaks and punctuation added).

jerrybrito Kubric on the indifference of the universe. See also:...

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:30:46 -0400

jerrybrito

Kubric on the indifference of the universe.

See also: Richard Dawkins on the same topic in this Radiolab Quickie.

"Read not the Times. Read the Eternities."

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:11:00 -0400

“Read not the Times. Read the Eternities.”

- From the essay Life Without Principle by Henry David Thoreau, who was complaining about gossip and the trivialities of the daily news long before any of us were born.

"If there’s one thing I’ve learned about living a life it’s that you need to keep moving, and if..."

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:40:21 -0400

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about living a life it’s that you need to keep moving, and if there’s another thing it’s that you really should quit your job every once in a while and take on something new, maybe even something that seems crazy and scares the hell out of you.”

- Jonathan Coulton (via meaghano via marco)

"Happiness comes from achieving success doing what you love, while ignoring the trappings that..."

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:21:00 -0400

“Happiness comes from achieving success doing what you love, while ignoring the trappings that symbolize success in that field.”

- Joey Roth