Cyber Reading

When was the last time you picked up a book? I picked one up today. It was fun. Really. Then I put it down again and read the internet. And this is what I read—sorry if you already know of it.

Synaptic Stimuli

Updates about once a week with a host of visual material based around one artist or designer's work, often to do with various broader, philosophical concepts. Provides links to further reading—great stuff. Has the second best titles for posts on the internet today.

Tputh

To quote their tagline, Tputh is "Socially Generated, Machine Filtered, Hand Polished, Electronic Newspaper for Geeks, Designers & Venture Capitalists" (their emphasis). Currently holds the title for... best titles. How can you go past "Hot or not? (Mostly not)" or "Fat man in expensive suit lurches at be-speckeld crowd of design dorks"? It's also a great way to stay abreast of design and tech developments, as it updates a couple of times a day.

Buamai

This is the place to go for image based research—if a style exists, its probably on here. Essentially, Buamai allows you to select an image and then, based on some crazy algorithm that I don't understand, throws up images that relate to that one. They could be by the same artist, or by someone completely different. Either way, it's awesome.

Twitter combined with Echofon [Mac] or TweetDeck [PC & Mac]

So this one might seem obvious, but, in all seriousness, Twitter is your friend. The one thing that not many people know, or understand, about the service is that you only have to tweet once. Then you can start following whomever you like—for instance, Vin mentioned H&FJ in his previous post. They tweet. As does most every designer, design blog and news service. Twitter allows them to recommend content for you, and you don't even have to open your browser to get it.

The Age and ABC News

Because its nice to read something that isn't about design.

Hopefully you found something interesting to read—if not, there's always burgers.

Mixing Fonts

For those of you who aren't signed up to the Hoefler & Frere-Jones mailing list this gives you some very practical advice about how to mix fonts (apologies if you've seen this before):

http://typography.com/ask/recentTopic.php?rtID=92

Pictures for Sad Children

This is something that makes me very happy, a very funny and dark comic that I feel everyone should read. The one below is my favourite one, but they are all amazing.

Further reading can be found at Pictures for Sad Children. Enjoy.

These are few of my favorite things...

Fornasetti is a god...(but the postcard is one from the V&A)

keyword posters

Recommended Reading

I know everyone has more reading than they can poke a stick at right now, but I thought I'd nominate a couple of general design books that are informative as well as being great reads. A couple of them have really helped me out with essays over the past couple of years, and should mostly be available in the library.

Emotional Design by Donald A. Norman

This is my bedside book at the moment—borrowed it on a whim from the library along with a bunch of other books. Started reading it on Monday and am already halfway through. Interesting reading that would be relevant to anyone looking at any sort of interactivity within their project, Norman manages to talk clearly about design process and thought. It's an easy read that offers some good, if basic, insights into object design.

Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Beirut

It's possible that there are people I haven't blabbed to about this book—possible, but not likely. This is an engaging collection of short essays that tackle everything from children's book covers to Celebration, Florida. While most of it is available online at Design Observer, it's nice having a printed copy to flick through and turn to on a regular basis. Bierut's tone is accessible and yet serious, striking a nice balance between an academic text and an easy read.

 Open Manifesto edited by Kevin Finn

Probably the most scholarly book in this series, Open Manifesto is that Australian graphic design journal that focuses mainly on theoretical writing. Like Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design, it too has a broad spectrum of subjects, and is up to its fifth issue, which focuses on the nature of identity. Again, it's well worth reading on its own regardless of what your Honours project may be. Unfortunately this is definitely not stocked in the library, and is hard to find amongst Melbourne bookshops. You can however order from their website.

Fan-a-rama

Just listing the videos I showed yesterday, if you guys want to follow up:

The Twilight "Rifftrax" (www.rifftrax.com)
FYI: rifftrax are audio commentaries on usually cult films, led by American comedian Michael J Nelson



These are all done by ItsJustSomeRandomGuy on YouTube. You can see how passionate and informed the guy is about both the Marvel and DC-verses (And I do envy his action figure collection). Do watch all his videos!





My favourite is actually this one:



I forgot to show a clip yesterday—it's the second episode from series 3 of Doctor Who, called The Shakespeare Code. Bit of background info: The Doctor and his companion Martha arrive in Elizabethan England, where the Carrionites (essentially witches) use Shakespeare's plays as a device to open up a portal to let more witches in. It's up to Shakespeare to save the world from a wart-infested plague with his "words of power". There's a great pop culture reference slid in by the writer/s, and it just highlights my point re: a fandom informing and enriching other fandoms. (FYI David Tennant has now been replaced by Matt Smith who looks very promising. New series out in the UK in April!)



And some Big Bang Theory :D

Episode 2.20 — "The Hofstadter Isotope"

(makes you wonder how many takes they had to have to get this scene right)



Episode 2.11 – "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis"



Episode 1.06 – "The Middle Earth Paradigm"

For you Flick: Barbie Porn 2004

Barbie Porn, 2004, copyright Natalia Hernandez

Online Lectures

So Natasha Theoharous, some of you know her (graduate from last year) has introduced me to listening to lectures online. Usually I just go, but this has opened me up to lectures for classes I am not enrolled in. So I suggest you go have a look at what is available.

Ingvill I have found one that may interest you:

http://mulo.monash.edu/scy2041/

The link if you are interested is:

http://www.mulo.monash.edu.au/

I find the Arts ones to be of particular use but it's probably best to look in all faculties if it relates to your project.

Vomitface

Design Discourse

Working or not working at all...

Class:type2. Project:procrastination
Vintage Oklahoma postcard, cowboys and indians /// mid combat

Places of Use

So I thought I would compile a list of printers and binders that are useful for any designers. This is for any international students who are new to the city or just anyone really.

Printers:

• E-Plot – Close to uni, but double sided registration is iffy. Upside is they deal with a lot of students so they are used to us.
• Kwik Kopy – Multiple locations, the one I like is in South Yarra around the corner from Soda Rocks on Chapel street. Sometimes colour can be iffy based on their toner cartridges but they make an effort to get good double sided registration.
• Gorilla Print – In Richmond, nice friendly people, run by graphic designers but double sided registration is not so good.
• Classic Colour Copy – Just near the Victoria Markets on Elizabeth St. It's expensive but great results, I trust them to take my file and print it if I leave it with them.
• Bambra – I wouldn't be using these guys for say the printing of your proposal bc they do digital press printing, it's pricey like really pricey but results are awesome. Hard place to get to though by Public Transport. They will courier the end result to you though for free if you live in a metropolitan suburb. They will also order in stock for you if you specify but they have a good range on hand anyway.
• Dinkums – Not that great but convenient for large format printing. Located near La Trobe Street.

Paper Suppliers:

• Paper Point – Two locations, one in South Yarra and one in South Melbourne. Both are fairly easy to get to by public transport. 10 free A3 sheets for students and they will also order in paper if you need it bigger. Damien at the South Yarra store is also sometimes grumpy.
• K.W Doggett – Located in Preston, so not really a convenient location but they will ship your order to you and they can cut any size you want. If you can get a copy of their samples you can see they have some nice stocks.

Binders:

• Doncaster Book Binders – Located in Moorabbin, not the easiest place to get to, you need to catch a bus from the station and then walk, but they are friendly and reasonably priced. Quick turn around as well.
• Irwin and McClarin – In Richmond, a short walk from the station, nice group of guys a but more pricey and results vary. Depends what time of year you approach them. If it's around folio time you can expect something to go wrong. However they are pretty good with fixing mistakes.

If anyone knows of any other good places just add them in a comment. Hopefully this is helpful.

Design And Cultural Relevancy

Here's an infographic I drew during the Research Methods seminar today. I was trying to express all the various discussions that were occurring throughout the couple of hours we had today, although it's a little focused on what our particular group was talking about.

I'd argue that design is a distinct cultural practice—we can show it through the way in which it combines the various elements of culture, theory and practice. It contributes, not necessarily in a unique way but in an integrated way. It is this integration of a wide range of practices that grants it a special place—in theory, a designer should be able to turn themselves to almost any output and perform well. We return, then, to the idea of a designer as a generalised problem solver, similar to Aristotle, Da Vinci, et al.

Do you agree/disagree?

When it rains it hails

Saturday, 6 March 2010
4th floor Caulfield library. Inspiration comes from all sources.