It's A Helvetica World

A week ago, the Helvetica movie had a smash New York premiere. Michael Bierut, who stole the show, talks about the film. Just can't get enough Helvetica? Kottke recently held a Helvetica haiku contest. And the MoMA launches a Helvetica exhibition to celebrate the typeface's 50th anniversary and acquisition to the museum (hear that, it's modern art!).

i shot the serif / left him there full of leading / yearning for kerning

She misunderstood / When I said she was 'Grotesque' / Akzidenz happen

I am a sucker for puns.

Si Scott

The neverending swirls of illustrator Si Scott. Check out his amazing type treatments.

Style & Design 100

Time magazine lists their picks for the 100 standouts in current design, exploring interiors, green design, packaging, fashion, the web, and more. Some baffling selections, but overall quite an interesting range of people, products and places.

No One Belongs Here More Than You

Miranda July, who you might remember from her film Me and You and Everyone We Know, has a book coming out in May, a collection of stories called No One Belongs Here More Than You. The book has a web site that's one of the most effective and creative I've seen in a long time.
It works because the story pulls you along so well; July's using the site's narrative to sell a book that is, presumably, chock full of the same sort of narrative. If you think the site sucks and quickly click away, chances are you're not going to like the book either...it's the perfect self-selection mechanism. The No One Belongs Here More Than You site is a lesson for web designers: the point is not to make sites that follow all the rules but to make sites that will best accomplish the primary objectives of the site.

Strange and Hilarious

After the success of the 'Puppetry of the Penis' phenomenon, which involved the live stage show and later, a DIY book version, the penis is back in vogue. Apart from their obvious use, the willy can be employed as a comedy tool, as this brilliant book from Quirk Book publishing demonstrates.

PENIS POKEY is a fun book which has holes cut through the centre of it for ones willy to poke through. Once inserted into the hole, the willy interacts with the illustration on the page to create a very funny scene indeed. From monkeys to underpants, the pages unveil cute opportunities to create various stories with your Johnston as the main star. The only thing missing was a page with a politicians head on it with a hole through the forehead, although we don't necessarily need a demonstration.

Even this scares the crap out of me.

You would think my extreme fear of aquatic life wouldn't be affected by this...but it is.
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have put a life size blue whale online (complete with underwater sound effects). Working with a thumbnail, you can move over the body of the 180 ton giant. Now, my question is, why don't we designers do stuff like this more often? A huge version of a design project would allow online viewers to interact with the work in a way that almost overcomes the distancing factor of a screen, to get up close and personal, to see texture, tiny flaws of personality, fine print... Anyone know of any design-related big projects conceptually similar to the whale? I'd love to know about them.

http://www.wdcs.co.uk/media/flash/whalebanner/content_pub_en.html

Jen Stark: Construction Paper Sculpture

Jen Stark has some amazing paper sculptures made out of constuction paper.

For the love of colour

COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

www.colourlovers.com

It's got to be good if it makes you laugh out loud.

I'm just really glad this exists.

www.quarkvsindesign.com

how are you feeling today?

I found this website that tracks users emotions. It's really interesting just how they make the data so interactive.

THIS IS MADNESS!



Literally. This is just one of the ways to preview emotions, this one being the most interactive.
My personal favorite is 'mounds,' they remind me of a combination of jello and the evil goo they find in the second Ghostbusters.

http://www.wefeelfine.org