Music is My Boyfriend

Posted on May 29, 2008 by C Lin
Design | Leave a Comment

I was reading a blog post about the relationship designers have with music on Design Observer. Adrian Shaughnessy writes: “I’ve never worked in a design studio where music wasn’t being played pretty much constantly… What is it with graphic designers and music?” Adrian has a good point. The image of a room full of designers with headphones on while staring at the computer screen is almost becoming cliché.

The Best Photoshop Resource Yet

Posted on March 28, 2008 by B Juergens
Design | Leave a Comment

Photoshop can be, at times, cumbersome with each new edition, although this is not to say completely futile. What commences as a brief look into creating conceptual art, culminates into an exceptional discovery. PSDTUTS.com is anything and everything Photoshop related. Lessons range from applying realistic tattoos, retouching facial imperfections, creating conceptual art, building seamless collages, fine tuning techniques of illustration, to making rad text effects. PSDTUTS is not only a prime resource for Photoshop tutorials, but it is also an online community where readers have the opportunity to suggest topics and even write in for paid publishing on the site. Definitely a hot resource right now.

Kinematic Typography

Posted on March 27, 2008 by B Juergens
Design | 1 Comment

Found: the most compelling art form for both typographers and laymen alike. People of various significance in the art world have taken famous cinematic scenes and re-created them using motley typefaces along with audio to showcase the enigmatic effect on our psyche.

New iPhone Retailing for $200 Less

Posted on September 6, 2007 by C Johnson
Tech | Leave a Comment

Well, we all knew the bomb would drop sooner or later. I just don’t think any of us realized how big a bombshell it would be or how soon it would drop! Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced an 8GB iPhone with a 2-year wireless plan retailing for $200.00 less than the original iPhone. (Incidentally, if you were a front-of-the-queue iPhone adopter, your phone isn’t even 100 days old yet!)

7 Steps to Understanding Your Co-workers

Posted on September 4, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture | Leave a Comment

Confession: I am a selfish person.

Newsflash: so are you.

Now don’t go getting your knickers in a twist over it—that wasn’t meant maliciously. In fact, if your feathers are ruffled well, it only goes to prove Scott Young’s recent blog about human behavior: no one thinks more about you than you do. (Not even your mum!) Scott’ Young’s blog is aimed at presenting his thoughts on how to get the best out of life, and his recent seven “rules” to understanding behavior are meant to explore the underlying factors behind “personal clashes” and “emotional upsets.”

I Want My Moleskine

Posted on June 4, 2007 by C Lin
Culture | Leave a Comment

A lot of my classmates in art school and even a couple of co-workers not only prefer Moleskine notebooks, but are Moleskine enthusiasts. Apparently they are not the only ones. I found the story of a travelling Moleskine project where notebooks are sent to various places around the world and anonymous individuals fill their pages. The pages are then scanned and posted on the blog. Also Paul Saffo, a fellow enthusiast, collaborated with Steve Derricott to fashion a custom leather Moleskine cover. P.S. If you’re wondering how to pronounce the word ‘Moleskine’, check out the Wikipedia entry.

Also, check out the travel blog and results of the custom cover here:

The Wandering Moleskine Project

Custom Leather Moleskine Cover

That’s Entertainment

Posted on May 23, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture | Leave a Comment

Corey Serin is a 24-year-old California suburbanite who has managed to run up a dept of nearly $200,000 in credit debt in addition to his failed financial exhibitionism in the real estate market where he bought 8 homes intended to be resold for profit.

So what does he do? What else? He starts a blog.

His website iamfacingforeclosure.com launched last year wherein he shares his financial troubles and then some. He posts his bank statements, financial spreadsheets and is blatantly honest over his cheating on mortgage application as well as his outright refusal to get a job: forcing his wife to clean homes to pay for food and rent.

The Paris Hilton Effect

Posted on May 17, 2007 by C Johnson
Culture | Leave a Comment

The digital age has re-defined the meaning of celebrity—it’s fast, cheap, easy and accessible to seemingly anyone. Tabloid empires have been built by cashing in on the celebrity craze and, sadly, now even the most respected news publications have begun to fashion similar tactics. The LA Times recently ran a story blasting the media frenzy surrounding the recent Paris Hilton trial. It appears as though now even the most respected news journals (i.e., The Times) have succumbed to the phenomena of supposed celebrity—that is to say, the attention garnered by namesakes like Paris Hilton. Names that translate into ratings—big, fat, juicy, delectable ratings. The sort of ratings enjoyed by rag television and celebrity gossip magazines. The ratings and numbers that stalwarts of the publishing industry covet, causing jittery editors (panicked over the recent migration of readers to the internet) to adopt the tactics of their less respectable counterparts.

Apple Service Woes

Posted on May 14, 2007 by S Running
Tech | Leave a Comment

This weekend, the power supply failed on my G5. This has happened to my PCs several times, so I take it in stride. Just make a quick stop at the electronics store, buy a new power supply and get up and running in short order. It turns out that this doesn’t apply to Macs.

Mark Strickland :: Indomitable Spirit

Posted on April 25, 2007 by C Johnson
Art | Leave a Comment

For about three years I was the most spoiled art fan in the world. I worked smack in the middle of London’s west end and was literally a fifteen minute walk from The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, The Guildhall Gallery, The Somerset House, County Hall’s Dali Permanent Collection and the Saatchi Galleries, not to mention the countless independent back alley galleries that littered Coven Garden. So my lunch break was a rather routine affair: grab a sandwich, walk to the gallery of my fancy and indulge: renaissance, post modern, impressionism, and surrealism— the possibilities were inexhaustible. (And free, thanks to the grace of HRM the Queen.)