SVA Podcasts: MFA Designer as Author

Podcasting design issues of all types by way of the School of Visual Arts NYC. The likes of which include noteables David Rees, Rick Poynor, Keith Godard, Neil Powell, Christoph Niemann, Milton Glaser, George Lois, Matthew Carter, Stuart Bailey, Joyce Rutter Kaye, Paola Antonelli, John Holmstrom, Steven Heller, plus SVA grad students. Great resource. You can grab the direct RSS feed or subscribe via iTunes.

( via GraphicDesignBar )

Hey God. Remember Me?

Came across this from Ben Workman's blog and it made me think. Just how often do you wonder what part you play in God's kingdom? Are you even important to him? Ben says we aren't part of His plan, rather, we are His plan. Heavy thought on a heavy subject. Thanks Ben for your thoughts and for sharing. Nice timing too.

Ben says...

You know, I think it comes down to that. No matter what we ask Him, no matter how diverse our prayers can sound, no matter what- it comes down to one underlying question we as humans have. We in essence say "Look! Look over here God! It's me!" and like a child we follow that with a softer voice--"Remember me?" I think that's what David realized when he prayed and sang for God to remember His people. But God does not forget. God does not put things aside for later, only to have them buried under paperwork. He does not give gifts and somehow *forget* to turn them on- nor does He place people in situations and forget His servants need His strength. Our lives are not games to God- we are His plans, and He never lets His plans go off track. Never.

(via Ben-nish)

God is Leading, Not Me

Shannon's not the only one experiencing life's storms and feeling inadequate. But as a result, and through his decision to share this difficult time and a devotional he discovered in his garage, he has been an encouragement to me. I post here because I believe you might also be encouraged by this. The rest of his blog, Divulgence, is equally as thoughtful. An excellent reminder of who is in control.

A Freelancer's Friend

Freelancers will enjoy Freelance Switch – a site I discovered via the gang at Lifehacker. The site needs no introduction, so if you're new to freelancing or been at it for some time, have at it.

History of Branding Website

Historyofbranding is a nice resource for all things brand. The site's been around since 2005, and seems to be gaining steam. In addition to showing hundreds of logos with histories, the site also has Unique Branding Ads, Popular Commercials, Popular Print Ads, Branding Books, Branding Quotes, Branding Slogans. A favorite quote I found on the site is:

"Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand." - David Ogilvy

( via Thats Right )

KT Tunstall: One Woman Band

Stumbled across this somehow, and it's really cool. KT Tunstall can rock it. See if you agree.

TUTORIAL BLOG: List Kings

TutorialBlog is a bit hard to categorize, because it's a bit all over the map, something which probably caught my attention in the first place. The blog is a place for Photoshop tutorials, but mostly I'm drawn to their lists. Like myself, they are hunters, gatherers and collectors, and they categorize lists of websites based on color (green, blue, brown, red), which I find interesting. All that said, they do throw in an oddball "30 Great Website Post" now and again to mix things up, and from left field "Top 10 Church & Religious Websites." I find the folks at TutorialBlog to be good spotters, filters, collectors, and sharers. As for the number "30" in many of their posts - I wish I new.

Product Innovation: Switchring

Introducing Switchring, a patented interchangeable ring with nearly endless design options and colors. A double-sphered base and wedge-shaped insert comes in three sizes with 100's of combinations to choose from. New designs released each month. Really cool idea. I LOVE the idea in product design to design a base product that has a consumable business attached. This ring is a great idea. It's also at a nice price-point. Also available as wholesale.

( via miosite )

Olimpia Zagnoli: Effortless Illustration

There's something effortless about Olimpia Zagnoli's work. Care free looking sketches over cut and found objects, and color like it's second nature, this young illustrator has quite a career ahead of her. If you think her website is nice, check out her Flickr pages. I love her work. It's just right.

She says..."I was born in Montecchio Emilia, near Reggio Emilia, on the 29 February 1984. I had my first crush on Picasso when I was four. At this moment I live in Milan, I'm 23 and I like Pirates, Peanuts and Stationery. When I get old, I'd like to be an Illustrator, a biologist and a rockstar."

( via Children's Illustration )

Legendary Neville Brody

During some down time, I stumbled across a presentation Neville Brody gave on March 15th at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design, which translates from Portuguese as the Superior School of Arts and Design— Matosinhos, Portugal. The interview is very long, but if you take your design career seriously you'll watch the whole thing because Neville is one of the all time best designers in my book. If you're going through the motions, this one will be too long for you. He appeared rather nervous to me, something I hadn't expected. Just because your work is legendary, doesn't mean you are automatically a brilliant speaker. He actually does a great job overall, and his 100 plus slides speak for themselves. Neville now calls Research Studios home.

( via Quipsologies )

Taxi Interviews: Heller, Sagmeister, Kidd

Another great Design Leader interview from Taxi, a design portal I've brought to your attention before, only under the name DesignTaxi. I can't tell if my former name for the site was in error, or whether they changed their name. Either way, this new interview features three heavyweights (skill not waist size) in the design profession: Steven Heller, Stefan Sagmeister and Chip Kidd. All in all a good three part interview. There are many other great interviews on the taxi Design Leader site, but I can't figure out how to make a link to them individually. Consequently if you are interested in any of those listed below, just go to the main site, and look at the bottom right under the category "EXCLUSIVE: Design Leaders" and click on the individual names there.

• Neil French
• Joanne Ooi
• Duangrit Bunnag
• Eikoh Hosoe (Japan)
• Neil Leifer (USA)
• Duane Michals (USA)
• Michael Hockney, D&AD (Chief Executive)
• Garry Blackburn & Simon Elliott, Rose (UK)
• Christopher Liechty, AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (President)
• Jacques Lange, ICOGRADA (President)
• Christopher Liechty, AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (President)
• Darrel Rhea, Cheskin (USA)
• Sara Little Turnbull, Stanford Graduate School of Business (USA)
• Adelia Borges, Museu da Casa Brasileira (Brasil)
• Linda Fu, Linda Fu Design + Global iCome Consulting (Australia)
• Esen Karol, Esen Karol Design Ltd (Turkey)
• Mervyn Kurlansky, Mervyn Kurlansky Design (Denmark)
• Saki Mafundikwa, Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (Zimbabwe)
• Ravi Naidoo, Design Indaba + Interactive Africa (South Africa)
• Sanja Rocco, ROCCO&PARTNER (Croatia)
• Henry Steiner, Steiner&Co (Hong Kong)
• Omar Vulpinari, Fabrica (Italy)
• Tarek Atrissi, Tarek Atrissi Design (Netherlands)
• Sean Bolan, University of Washington (USA)
• Cristina Chiappini, Graphic and Interactive Design (Italy)
• Halim Choueiry, Virginia Commonwealth University (Qatar)
• Lorraine Gauthier, Work Worth Doing (Canada)
• Andrea Marks, Oregon State University (USA)
• Alejandro Quinto, Work Worth Doing (Canada)
• Chang Sik Kim, San Jose State University (South Korea)
• Maurice Woods , Achana (USA)
• Henk van Assen, Yale University School of Art (USA)

( via Quipsologies )

Great Quote: How Design Effects Profit

Came across this quote from Ben Terrett (Noisy Decent Graphics) from a roundtable he gave recently at the futuremarketing conference in London last week. It really struck me how this shows the tangible value some companies place on the role of the designer, and how design effects the financial bottom line. Not all companies understand this (though I've come in contact with a few recently who do). I agree with Ben this would be felt on Wall Street.

Imagine what would happen to GM's share price if they announced that (Apple's VP Creative Director) Jonathan Ive had joined their board as Head of Design - it would go through the roof. – ben terrett

Book Design: Frances Baca Design LIVE!

Frances Baca caught my eye months ago and she and I bounced emails back and forth. Basically I admired her work when I first discovered it on her Flickr set. She was busy working at that time, with the goal of having her personal website go live. Well, she emailed me today and she's officially up and running. I hope to see more of her work in the future (please, pretty please), but for now here's a look at her work. From my perspective Frances' work could be best described with words such as just right, just enough, not too much, conceptual and communicative, and inspiring. She is definitely gifted, and I believe you'll enjoy seeing her work for yourself. Let her know what you think by leaving a comment and/or emailing her here.

Adobe Inspiration: Stories

Adobe presents stories about how their technology's helping revolutionize how people engage with ideas and information. This is another great micro site on the content rich Adobe family of sites. Their DesignCenter micro site is yet another. One of my interests in producing BarryBlog is to share what I find interesting in the event you do too. These Adobe sites are one's you know about perhaps, but are too busy to pay attention to. Hum...too busy to pay attention. That's something worth discussing in the future.

John Piper: A Loving Tribute to Dad

Hello, My Father Just Died

BumpTop Prototype: Pushing the Desktop

Bumptop, an idea by Canadian programmer Anand Agarawala is a cool look beyond the current GUI desktop interface. The company is actively pursuing the development of a prototype into a complete desktop replacement that can be installed on any machine. We'll see. But for now, check it out in action.

( via NYT's Pogue's Posts )

MadeThought: Precision, Clarity, Beautiful

MadeThought has a brilliant aesthetic which takes me back to math class. Precision, clarity, beauty. An outstanding multi-discipline design firm. They're known for a deliberate and crafted look, and emmersing themselves fully into their client's work. High praise.

( via screenfluent )

761 Hotel Labels: In Their Graphic Glory

Thanks to AceJet, via davidthedesigner, via Serif, I came across a great Flickr set of hotel tags.

Photoshop Online: No Big Surprise

Like others, I'd seen this coming. Here's an interesting article regarding Adobe's move to a hosted web version of Photoshop. It will be free, and the business model will rely on online advertising. I suggested in a couple previous BarryBlog posts here and here that this was likely going to be the case sooner than later.

( by Martin LaMonica and Mike Ricciuti Staff Writer, CNET News.com )
( via Damien at designwire's newswire )

Vocalist, Comedian, Whatever: Reggie Watts

Don't know much about Reggie Watts, and from his website it doesn't look like we have much in common but the haircut, but no denying the brother can kick it. One thing I do know is I want him and his sampler on my team for the World Team Karaoke Championships.