Default profile icons

Default profile icons. I've always thought Google's default googly-eyed icon was genuinely disturbing - - maybe to make it more likely people will personalize it?

Photoluminesent "trap lights"

Photoluminesent "trap lights" by Gionata Gatto and Mike Thompson:

The project proposes a radical new approach to lighting design through the use of photoluminescent pigments to capture escaping light; and converting waste energy back into visible light.

Photoluminesence is a process in which energy absorbed by a substance is gradually released as light, and using the Murano glass blowing technique, the designers were able to embed photoluminescent pigments into the glass body of the lamp.

Through this process, Trap Light becomes both shade and light source, emitting, absorbing, and re-emitting light.

Thirty minutes ‘charge’ of recycled light from a traditional incandescent or LED light bulb provides up to eight hours of ambient lighting.

Via.

Coolest espresso machine, ever

Espresso machine Etienne Louis, designed by Carlo Borer. Via.

*Buy $4,000 espresso machines at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. The April Fool's Day episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold will be a Scooby-Doo crossover.

2. Etsy is the latest company to decide that its users have no right to privacy.

3. NY Times article complaining about the fonts on new road signs in London.

Watch as Chip Kidd accurately points out that the cover to All-Star Superman #1 is terrible

Here's a 90 minute lecture by Chip Kidd from 2009 about several projects he had recently completed.



He starts by taking a shot at Celine Dion and Vegas:



And establishing his bonafides as a Batman geek (that's him as Robin in a costume made by his mom):



The first project he describes is designing the logos for All-Star Superman and All-Star Batman and Robin - - he got the job because Frank Miller demanded DC hire him.

The Superman logo represents Superman flying away at great speed:



While the Batman and Robin logo looks like the duo crashing through a skylight (emphasizing Robin, his favorite):



After that, the speech takes a surprising turn as he mocks the DC staff:

The thing that you need to know about the staff at DC Comics . . . is that they are all to one, overgrown 15-year-olds, mostly men, who breathe through their mouths, and are crazy, and have no taste.

The insults are tacky, but I entirely agree with his next point - - the covers to All-Star Superman #1 and All-Star Batman and Robin #1 were horrendous.

Jim Lee's cover for Batman and Robin is hopelessly busy and features the duo hanging from something that's bizarrely high. And Robin seems to be kicking Batman in the groin:



The Superman cover is at least a better illustration, but is tremendously boring. I suspect that the people who liked it were preprogrammed to do so by the many interviews Grant Morrison gave in which he described meeting a Superman cosplayer who became his muse. For example:

I’ve told this story in more detail elsewhere but basically, we were trying to figure out how to “reboot” Superman without splitting up his marriage to Lois, which seemed like a cop–out. It was the beginning of the conversations which ultimately led to Superman Now, with Dan and I restlessly pacing around trying to figure out a new way into the character of Superman and coming up short...

Until we looked up to see a guy dressed as Superman crossing the train tracks. Not just any skinny convention guy in an ill–fitting suit, this guy actually looked like Superman. It was too good a moment to let pass, so I ran over to him, told him what we’d been trying to do and asked if he wouldn’t mind indulging us by answering some questions about Superman, which he did...in the persona and voice of Superman!

We talked for an hour and a half and he walked off into the night with his friend (no, it wasn’t Jimmy Olsen, sadly). I sat up the rest of the night, scribbling page after page of Superman notes as the sun came up over the naval yards.

My entire approach to Superman had come from the way that guy had been sitting; so easy, so confident, as if, invulnerable to all physical harm, he could relax completely and be spontaneous and warm. That pose, sitting hunched on the bollard, with one knee up, the cape just hanging there, talking to us seemed to me to be the opposite of the clenched, muscle-bound look the character sometimes sports and that was the key to Superman for me.

Now if you had read one of those interviews, then you would have understood the story that's being told on the cover:



But if, like Chip Kidd, you hadn't, then the cover says nothing at all. If anything, as Kidd points out, it features a Superman sitting in a fairly unmasculine pose, and who seems disinterested in his city. Compare it to some of the other covers in the series:








Now those covers tell a story. All in all, the lecture is a fascinating look at how Kidd goes about his work. You can buy a wonderful collection of Chip Kidd's book covers, at Amazon. Via.

Giant buttons are fun to push

Definition 6 sent a Coca-Cola "Happiness Truck" driving around Rio De Janeiro. As the video shows, the truck dispensed soda, soccer balls, surfboards and more. Mostly it makes me think that I need to incorporate more giant buttons into my life. Via.

*Buy Easy buttons at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Tim Rogers makes lots of excellent and funny observations about video game designs in this post at Kotaku. In fact, there are observations about design in general and how even napkin dispensers are a sort of game:

In short, a "perfectly usable" videogame is no fun at all. If Super Mario Bros. were perfectly "usable", you would walk right from start to finish in a world free of obstacles, monsters, or any other reason to jump. That sure would suck a whole lot! Matt and I seem to be in agreement that any good software interface requires some kind of "friction", whether it's about saving princesses or moving files from one folder to another. I'm not saying that it should be as challenging as Tetris to install an application: just that it should feel and look like something cute and fun. Then again, do you really want moving files to be so fun in your computer operating system that people are tempted to sit around moving files back and forth all day? You probably don't, in the same way that you don't want people to stand there and, giggling like a heliumed gorilla, straight-blast paper-grabbing at your napkin dispenser until it's empty and they're breathing heavily and sweating all over your floor. In short, the new napkin dispensers are too fun; they are so too fun they are dangerous to restaurant productivity.

2. I had lunch at Umami Burger for the first time today. Really fantastic (and it better be because a burger, fries, and 8 oz(!) soda plus tip is $20).

3. "George Clooney is financing the use of surveillance satellites to monitor violence in the Sudan in advance of an independence referendum there."

Link roundup

1. Tim Rogers makes lots of excellent and funny observations about video game designs in this post at Kotaku. In fact, there are observations about design in general and how even napkin dispensers are a sort of game:

In short, a "perfectly usable" videogame is no fun at all. If Super Mario Bros. were perfectly "usable", you would walk right from start to finish in a world free of obstacles, monsters, or any other reason to jump. That sure would suck a whole lot! Matt and I seem to be in agreement that any good software interface requires some kind of "friction", whether it's about saving princesses or moving files from one folder to another. I'm not saying that it should be as challenging as Tetris to install an application: just that it should feel and look like something cute and fun. Then again, do you really want moving files to be so fun in your computer operating system that people are tempted to sit around moving files back and forth all day? You probably don't, in the same way that you don't want people to stand there and, giggling like a heliumed gorilla, straight-blast paper-grabbing at your napkin dispenser until it's empty and they're breathing heavily and sweating all over your floor. In short, the new napkin dispensers are too fun; they are so too fun they are dangerous to restaurant productivity.

2. I had lunch at Umami Burger for the first time today. Really fantastic (and it better be because a burger, fries, and 8 oz(!) soda plus tip is $20).

3. "George Clooney is financing the use of surveillance satellites to monitor violence in the Sudan in advance of an independence referendum there."

Posters about the war on Mars (and other gems from the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.)

Some of the wonderful goods on sale at 826 Seattle's Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. (links to the various product categories are on the right of the page):

Mars God of War posters by Jacob Covey:


“On Mars you will die like a dog for no good reason.” – Ernest Hemingway



“Mankind must put an end to Mars, or Mars will put an end to mankind.” – John F. Kennedy



“I am sick and tired of Mars. Its glory is all moonshine. Mars is hell.” – General W.T. Sherman



“Mars is only a cowardly escape from the problems of Earth.” – Thomas Mann




Great Balls of Fire print by Spencer Charles.



"Season's Greetings from Europa" Cards by Justin Allan.




Pluto IS a Planet poster by Allan and Charles.





Certified Space Traveler Tee-Shirt by Tim Sanders.





Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. T-Shirt




Panic Industries™ Soft Fiber Garment by Julia-Anne Endicott Bork.






Bottles of Certainty and Uncertainty by Thad Boss/Studio Rayolux.




Black Hole Starter Kit by Boss.





Tycho Brahe's Coffee Set

*Buy Essentially Odd: A Catalog of Products Created For and Sold at the 826 Stores at Amazon.

Posters about the war on Mars (and other gems from the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.)

Some of the wonderful goods on sale at 826 Seattle's Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. (links to the various product categories are on the right of the page):

Mars God of War posters by Jacob Covey:


“On Mars you will die like a dog for no good reason.” – Ernest Hemingway



“Mankind must put an end to Mars, or Mars will put an end to mankind.” – John F. Kennedy



“I am sick and tired of Mars. Its glory is all moonshine. Mars is hell.” – General W.T. Sherman



“Mars is only a cowardly escape from the problems of Earth.” – Thomas Mann




Great Balls of Fire print by Spencer Charles.



"Season's Greetings from Europa" Cards by Justin Allan.




Pluto IS a Planet poster by Allan and Charles.





Certified Space Traveler Tee-Shirt by Tim Sanders.





Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. T-Shirt




Panic Industries™ Soft Fiber Garment by Julia-Anne Endicott Bork.






Bottles of Certainty and Uncertainty by Thad Boss/Studio Rayolux.




Black Hole Starter Kit by Boss.





Tycho Brahe's Coffee Set

*Buy Essentially Odd: A Catalog of Products Created For and Sold at the 826 Stores at Amazon.