Zeldman on Blog Design

June 16th, 2009

surely content is king but there are better ways to present your content than this… it looks like a regular wordpress theme.

I’d be intrigued to know what those better ways to present this content are.

It looks like a WordPress theme because it is one.

WordPress themes spring from Blogger themes. Blogger themes sprang from what Dave Winer, Jason Kottke and I and some of our friends were doing on the web in the mid-1990s. (I also designed some of the default Blogger themes.)

So it makes sense that my blog would look like a blog, and that a retro redesign of my blog would look like a primordial blogging template. It’s a zag away from the modern trend of making blogs look like newspapers or Flash sites or movie posters or other things.

That trend is interesting and those design explorations by other people can really be wonderful and can push web design in new directions.

But that’s not what I’m doing here, as noted in the “blog post” that precedes these comments. What I’m doing here is resurrecting early blogdom, with modern typographical niceties made possible by better standards support in modern browsers—you’re welcome!

via Redesigned – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report.

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Zeldman is Redesigned

June 12th, 2009

Mainly, the redesign is content focused. After so many years as a web designer, and after creative directing so many influential projects, I naturally considered doing a wide, three-column, ultra-modern design—something cool, detached, polished, and glowing with rich media and fancy-pants sliding-drawer JavaScript effects. Not that there’s anything wrong with those things. In the right circumstances, those things can rock hard. But this site is mainly about my writing. So I crafted a simple look that encourages reading and hearkens back to this site’s early years.

And, it was my pleasure helping him turn his HTML gold into WordPress magic.

via Redesigned – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report.

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Today at Apple’s WWDC event in San Francisco, Apple had a bunch of Cinema Display monitors mounted together on a wall showing what looked to be some sort of pulsating canvas. But a closer look revealed that it was actually a huge collection of icons for many of the apps available in the App Store, arranged by color. Apparently, when someone purchased one, that app’s icon would pulsate, creating the effect.

via Apple’s Cool Matrix-Style App Wall , via Dean.

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portable espresso maker

May 1st, 2009

mypressi TWIST: The perfectly portable espresso maker. via Tim

Tomorrow, 6:30 sharp, at the Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, Michigan, I’ll be speaking at Refresh Detroit. The talk will cover the transition from print to web design, the differences between the mediums, and how to utilize your print design skills when dealing with the web. There will be lots of Q&A, so bring your thinking caps.

I’m super excited to be able to meet everyone at Refresh Detroit and honored to give this talk. See you there!

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41 shades

March 23rd, 2009

Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.

via Goodbye Google | stopdesign.

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A Beautiful RAID

January 10th, 2009

This may well be the coolest looking 4 drive RAID enclosure to date. Beautiful, but at tad pricey and who wants 4 drives when you can have 5?

lacie 4big quadra

LaCie – 4big Quadra.

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joystiq comment fading

I was on Joystiq – reading about the 1up layoffs – and noticed that they’ve implemented a very interesting comment approval / rating design.

As people vote comments down they become less and less opaque eventually rendering them all but illegible.

A clever way of quieting the more obnoxious voices.

via Joystiq Comment Fading on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

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the grid system is an aid

December 3rd, 2008

“The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee.
It permits a number of possible uses and each
designer can look for a solution appropriate to his
personal style. But one must learn how to use the
grid; it is an art that requires practice.”

Josef Müller-Brockmann

via The Grid System – “The ultimate resource in grid systems.”.

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Paisley

November 4th, 2008

Paisley

Paisley, originally uploaded by noeljackson.

Some wallpaper I found at the doctor’s.

New Pepsi Logo Highlight Video

October 29th, 2008

Pepsi Unveils Packaging to ‘Digital and Social Media Influencers’ – AdGabber.
Find more videos like this on AdGabber

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McCain is sooo stuck in the '90s

I’ll let you be the judge on this one. :)

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periodic wine bottles

September 29th, 2008

Wines of Substance bottles - element, chemistry wine bottles

via timoni (who is an amazing girl) tumblr

Amazing Sound Studio Designs

September 24th, 2008

via the music of sound » Music/Sound Studio Design. Here are some amazing sound studio designs:

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RubensLp.com.br Artwork

September 15th, 2008

rubens lp

rubens lp

via RubensLp.com.br

Simon Says or Chrome?

September 5th, 2008

Andy mentioned something that was brewing in the back of my mind:

Chrome, the browser, or Simon Says, the game?

Chrome, the browser, or Simon Says, the game?

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Bitches Brew

September 4th, 2008

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

via ISO50 – The Visual Work of Scott Hansen

Captcha, I hate you too.

September 3rd, 2008

this transaction is not worh the affront to my dignity

At the heart of the game of cat-and-mouse played by bloggers and spammers is Captcha, purveyor of those staticky demands to enter the code exactly as shown above.

via Ask H&FJ | Hoefler & Frere-Jones

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Alpha Coffee Table

August 28th, 2008

alpha coffee table

This one-of-a-kind conversation table was inspired by a Paris flea market find, then designed exclusively for us by a London graphic designer with a penchant for, and a large personal collection of, antique printers’ blocks.

Alpha Coffee Table shopping in Crate and Barrel Coffee Tables

via [BB-Blog]: Alpha Coffee Table.

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U.K. Racket Sports stamp 1977

U.K. Racket Sports stamp 1977, originally uploaded by DavidMcFarline.

This site is currently under construction. If it looks good, thatʼs just an accident ;)