desidioms

good for grasshopper

embarking on a new project after a year and a half of teaching university level visual communications classes. a year of that was full-time, and my required service commitment that was added to the three classes per semester, was being faculty advisor to the student design club (which was way better than the other dept service commitments which was the faculty classes/schedule/degree advising they had to do for 300+ students each semester).

returning from my digression - as advisor to the club and as a professor who was still working (30 hours per week) in the field - i got a lot of students coming to see me for advise, how-to's, what's the real world like's, that (at least they said) they felt were unable to ask the other faculty. 

i declined teaching again for this year. although having the two jobs was great in getting some debts paid, the amount of dedication i tend to put into things times 3 was just much more draining than i'd have admitted before. it was insanely rewarding - but with the full-time design job, i can advance in my career. with the full-time teaching job, i couldn't advance without getting my masters. 

so no more teaching. at least physically. i do want to be a mentor and a resource, because i found that incredibly fulfilling. so i started a project called good for grasshopper. check it out.

green design

we pick paper. we pick the best (or at least advise the best) number of pages, where to print, inks, varnishes, and sometimes say - "hey, you know, you should just do this online."

and considering that we have that much control over even just one little brochure - some say, designers have more influence in environmental impact than your average politician.

if you're one of those that doesn't believe it (still fuming over the whole bush vs kerry, bush vs gore, bush vs common sense debaucle?)
design can change will not only give you a better outlook or some environmental optimism - it will give you plenty of clues as how to use your design powers for the good of the earth.

you can sign the pledge, find resources and refer your clients to this site if they want green design that you just can't give to them. it might not be instant change, but it's a very well kerned step in the green direction.

test your type

in no way is this new - but in most ways, it's super cool.

typetester is a site where you can play with font, leading, tracking, color, word spacing and decoration (and more), click on "get code" and get the css code for your website.

it's like a typographer's web dream.

the elements of web-type

so, it's been almost five years since i graduated from university - graduated the communication design program - and yet, the book, "the elements of typographic style" is again infiltrating my desktop. but instead of the wooden desktop i used to work on - the one full of scratches, sticky with spray mount and decorated with the out-of-the-line markings of prisma colors - it's my 2-d computer desktop, with the rotating pictures of my nephew and my cat.
this time, it's the the elements of typographic style applied to the web. finally, something to reference when our programmers tell us we have to live with their inability (or lack of professional accountability) to make our body copy look halfway decent.

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.

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.

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.