desidioms

spreadshirts

want a custom t-shirt? maybe an apron with your mom's face on it? maybe some buttons that say, "design p.i.m.p."?

added to the likes of other design-your-own-t-shirt-and-stuff websites like cafepress and neighborhoodies is spreadshirt. they have t-shirts, buttons, bags, etc, that you can choose and customize like hoodies and cafepress. spreadshirt is like a cross between hoodies and cafepress, however. with cafepress, you have to set up shop - and with the free account, can customize one per item, and sell or buy your own creations. the benefit of cafepress is the ability to upload your own images and designs. whereas in neighborhoodies, although it's less-commital - a "design it, buy it, and please come again" - it's also less of your own thing - except for word choice and placement. the fonts you pick from are cool though, and they have nice little icons you can sprinkle about your design. whatever you come up with will no doubt look like it came from neighborhoodies or urban outfitters.

regardless, neighborhoodies is still my fave - especially with the neighborhoodies music part including radio hoodies - part of the site where you get a free mp3 a day. and that's not the only place that neighborhoodies rocks - their web site design is still number one as well.

but it's great that there are all of these places online for designers and non-designers to explore their creativity. and with more of these sites proliferating, the prices seem to be growing more reasonable, as well.

back to the future

something neat I found: every page of the the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893" is online. you can browse through the pages of the book of the fair and see great old illustrations of art and architecture (my interests), fishing, machinery, etc. it's a nice reference to have if you like the illustration styles of yesteryear (available at 1500 x 1000 pixels) - and quite interesting to see what was presented at the fair, and is presently in use today.

dragging his knuckles

here's a headline for Neil French: "blogs killed my career." - subhead: "is it something i said?"
the image behind the headline would be a picture of the bloated ego with a questioning look on his face - standing at a shuffleboard deck somewhere in miami, with pregnant women in the back making lemonade, having babies and rubbing their husbands' feet.
In an interview in Ad Age, Neil French, the so-called "creative legend" rebuts his detractors and defends his comment that "all women creative directors are crap." french made the comment when speaking to an audience in toronto (who each paid $125 each). when asked why there are so few women at the top of the advertising food chain, he made the remark that has since resulted in his resignation from WPP Group.
when asked in the interview if the reaction was fair, he blamed the blogs, and of course "one woman getting her knickers in a twist and writing a long diatribe on a Web site and then all the other people with nothing to do joining in."
that woman is Nancy Vonk, the Co-Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Toronto, and it wasn't the first time she'd heard his philosophy on breeders. her being at such a high position is proof she must have heard the kind of crap spilled from french's mouth many times before - and from many other men at the top most likely. it's not a matter of having thick skin; it's a matter of not letting things get too far.
unfortunately, if you read the comments to the adrants post on neil french's interview, you'll see that the old world attitudes are still present in the industry. and unfortunately, french's resignation from WPP is only the end of his career there - as i'm sure he'll still have opportunities elsewhere, and he'll still be able to grunt his monosyllabic commentary for $125 a seat. if you're interested in something like that, may i suggest your nearest zoo, instead? it's much cheaper to see an ape speak there.
tagline for french: "Neil French: misogynist for hire."

everything he knows

i found everything i know in the sidebar of we make money not art today. it's a site about "interaction design and design in general," and rory hamilton's "effort to get years of experience out of my head and into the world."
to quote kurt vonnegut, i think it's "nice, nice, very nice" - for a world of designers to get the equivalent of a mentor's input from the same (online) device.

the socialite wants attention

michael anastassiades' social light and anti-social lite are part of the Design For Thought exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jeruselum through 1/31/06.
the social light requires chatter to keep it glowing - a good cue as to whether your party needs an infusion of excitement. unless you have a silent shindig, such as a book reading, where the anti-social light would be more appropriate.
the anti-social light, is the opposite of its social counterpart. the light source will actually dim down and eventually go out if there's too much noise occurring around it.
more cool stuff from the exhibition here.

(links via thedesignweblog via we make money not art)

bottlecap

bottlecap studios is a cool site i tripped over today while looking for an image to borrow for a comp. nice site, very good looking, with sweet navigation - except the music makes me feel like i'm trapped in jello. not that i don't like it - i do. it works very well with the site animation. it just evokes a bit of a gelatinous feeling not easily accomplished by a website. and hey, everyone loves jello.

cockrockdisco

yes. cock rock disco.
cock rock disco is a cool little site. but whether you like the name or not - you will most likely think the war photographer video is awesome.
it will rock whatever it is that you rock with.
the other videos and mp3s on there are pretty kickin as well (yeah, i said kickin).

mosaique and ourcommon

i found the mosaique link in the public news section of stylegala this morning. it was my first time at stylegala - a publication about web design and standards - and my opinion so far is formulated by my impression of the first sites i've come to by way of their news sections. that opinion being - stylegala has great taste.
my first discovery off their site was mosaique - a design firm consultancy in the uk. it's built in flash - so if my search engine friends are right - it won't make a huge splash on google. however, the design of it is excellent - its beautiful, and gives a very amiable impression. plus i like the subtle details of it - how the portfolio interacts and is laid out.
i also found ourcommon, the design portfolio of peter reid out of california. this is a really gorgeous site, too. and i don't use gorgeous sparingly. this site has a lot of personality behind it. i love the look and feel of it, the attention to detail, and the craftsmanship present in its design.
these two sites were at the top of stylegala. i plan to bookmark both, in case later on in the day when i'm surfing for inspiration, i can stare lovingly into my screen, hoping one day, our web programmer here will stop lying to us and actually spend the time to translate our starry-eyed interfaces into websites that work even half as well. but of course, stylegala will be in the bookmarks bar, too. bc those guys have great taste and provide a great portal to even greater work.

emigre #69

emigre's last issue, issue 69 - 10 years ago, i would giggle at the number, and now, the number in this context makes me nothing but sad. sad that the era of emigre is coming to a close.
yes, the fonts and posters will still be available, but ever since i read the print (or was it commarts?) article last year with rudy vanderlans, talking about his decision to end the magazine's 21 year run (the first issue was put together in 1984 in a 11.5" by 17" format) - i've been saddened. my subscription to the magazine had been halted after graduation, when they started charging for issues, and my constant moving every year had me hesitant to subscribe, my loss of packages both at work and home(s) had me hesitant to order, and did i forget to mention i'm a designer and have a designer's salary?
but i thought emigre'd be around forever. why wouldn't it? here was the reason i'd wanted to get into publication design and my first influence to pursue writing about design. emigre was my first publication design project - and the work and passion i put into helped me get into the good graces of my publication design teacher - who years later called me and said, "hey, i'm the creative director at my shop now, come bring in your book." it's been almost 5 years now since i graduated, and he's been my creative director ever since. i'm throwing a little of that credit (if not for also giving me the inspiration to continue in design rather than throwing it all out the window to become a professional waitress) towards emigre.
i thought emigre'd be around for other starry-eyed design students. but alas it's not. issue #69 is slated to come out late october. that's this month. i have nothing charming to say about this at all. i am presently throwing a temper tantrum. it's like the last episode of my so called life. except rudy vanderlans is jordan catalano, and i'm angela, and i have no closure here. no closure at all.

the nose

i got a cool sample from my clampitt rep the other day. one of the perks of listening to her talk about paper is getting cool paper samples. (and i'm not complaining - who doesn't like to talk about paper, right, especially when the talk is accompanied with swatchbooks and breakfast tacos)
this last time was payday - she brought me the latest issue of The Nose, pushpin's "publication designed to draw attention to relevant social issues as well as trivial ones."
each issue is 24 pages - all designed and illustrated by seymour chwast - and my hero, stephen heller, is the editor. for some reason, i'd not seen or heard of an issue before this last one. maybe it's bc i've been buried at work, buried in design lit that i felt i had to catch up with, or i became jaded after hearing about rudy vanderlan's retirement of emigre.
or maybe - and this is a good thing - the design world is finally so full of good stuff to read and look at, that we actually have too much to hear about, and therefore can miss hearing about cool pubs like The Nose. i remember when emigre was free. i was still in design school - and it was only after i graduated in 2001 that they started having to charge for issues bc of the demand for the issues.
it's also this plethora of wantable design materials that gives me reason to start a new category on desidiom. bc i'm a designer. and i need the presents of good design reading, posters, and fonts in my life.
and yes, i spelled presents correctly...

you work for them

a link off the QBN Bookshelf section of newstoday led me to you work for them - a cool online bookstore that i wish was down the street, rather than online. it'd be across the street from the phaidon design library, caddycorner to the graphic-designer's-salary-friendly design matters outlet store, and i could get to it easily on my environmentally conscious and stylish hybrid range rover.
even though that little scenario is as close to real becoming real as the current administration is to being trustworthy, you work for them is a great site full of design classics, specialty short-run, hand-made items, worldwide design products unavailable in many local markets, typefaces, stock design, other tools, books, mags, videos, cd-roms, t-shirts - and most importantly inspiration.

pillowhead

browsing through Newstoday and ended up on pillowhead.net. the landing page was quite beautiful, so i delved in some more, and saw some gorgeous bleeping artwork.
you should really see for yourself.

a real design encyclopedia

UnderConsideration has launched an exciting online initiative called the design encyclopedia - modeled after Wikipedia and TypoWiki.
the design encyclopedia has a very easy user interface once you login to add or edit definitions. you can also add upload corresponding photos pretty easily as well.
both the design encyclopedia and typowiki are in beta, and they are still ironing out the bugs. nonetheless, i found it exciting contributing to the definition of bestine.
i see both of these being huge resources in the near future.

core77

core77
i love core77. it's just a wicked site, full of information, articles, discussions, "clogger" (their community blog) and a photo gallery filled to the brim of great design exhibitions and festivals taking place around the world - so you can live vicariously through them by surfing their images as you sit in front of your monitor at work trying to overcome your designers' block.
a couple of articles to whet your palette:
Upping The Ante: Understanding business & design through casino poker
Visionary Stupidity
Taking the Middle Ground:
Massive design for the masses?
and most recently, a nicely written book review of Cracking the Whip by Ralph Caplan.
this is a great bookmark to have. not to mention their email newsletters. one of the only email subscriptions i keep bc they dont stuff my mailbox.

web design terminology

editors design group
as more and more designers find themselves doing more web design - whether it be the interface layout or plunging themselves into the depths of CSS - it becomes increasingly important to learn the language. so the editors design group is a great resource full of web design terminology that you can bookmark. you can then return to the site to gather the relevant terms for your project and be armed for your next client meeting or your next visit with the programmers.

resources

i'm creating a new category called resources. i'll be filling it with random, but deliberate, links to different sites. the sites of the sort, which live forever in my bookmarks bar. sites full of enlightening and helpful information about design related topics.
see the next post for the first resource link/blurb.

team

team - two or more art directors/designers, copywriters, production artists, and a creative director, possibly some account execs, that work on a project together

sometimes a team can be difficult - especially with designers - who can be more than willing to share ideas and collaborate on a project and who can turn around and want total autonomy aka "ownership" on another.
we have egos. we have those projects that we really really want to win a place in CA with our name underneath and our name alone. maybe that's just me. and maybe all i've met are designers that feel the same way - strong designers with strong books. and when the project is yours - you don't mind getting external input - but its your decision whether or not you want to take it - its not something you have to agree on.
i read the school of visual arts CRIT blog this morning, and there was a discussion about collaboration, with many pro and con opinions posted in commentary. one of the comments i read mentioned something that hit home - since i encountered the same problems in school. someone not pulling their weight. and of course, on the contrary side - there are always those in collaborative efforts who try to pull too much of the weight.
but don't get me wrong - there are a plethora of reasons that support a team atmosphere - but in my experience, the best environment is one where there's multiple designers working on individual projects in close vicinity helping each other out whenever they can. they should replicate this more in design school, and i'm not talking about the "group critiques" bc those could just be stages for some students to say what they think the professor wants them to say.
if more design schools tailored their classes to mimic the design firm setting - where in class, lets say a mandatory design lab, you worked on your designs among other students doing the same. little cubicles where you can turn to joe, and say, "hey, what do you think of this" and to marie and say, "that's really cool, what if you..." - bc that's what it's like in the real world - unless you're freelance.

harder than cracking the creative suite

cracking the creative suite or drag and dropping CS

translation: insanely hard, difficult, impossible or nearly impossible
ex: "tickets to coldplay were sold out. finding good seats was harder than cracking CS"

apalachicola basscat

like a G3

"like a G3" = slow.
ex. "hurry up, you're movin like a G3"

desktop & webstage

desktop = a designer's personal space
ex. "he's totally infringing on my desktop"

webstage = a web designer or programmer's personal space
ex. "look, i am the expert on search engine optimization, so please get off my webstage"

custom photography

custom photography: something ordinary made cooler - like this nokia 8801 phone.
i discovered this phone this morning, and i want it bad. the keypad slides up when you tap it, and slides back down when you tap it again. it's super-sleek made of stainless steel and scratch resistant glass (specially reinforced glass over screen) - and along with a collection of better-than-your-average-ringtone ringtones, it boosts an internal digital music player (AAC/mp3) and an FM radio. it has camera and video capabilities, bluetooth, and most anything else you could want.
this phone is so custom photo.