Delivered In Beta

Delivered in Beta from KS12 on Vimeo.

Posted onMonday, Feb 15, 2010 in Design | Permalink | Comments

Tumbling Todd

Just wanted to let you know that I also have a Tumblr blog where all of my del.icio.us links, twitter posts, and flickr photos get posted.

I also mention it because there are interesting photos, images and videos that I post there that don't really fit here. Today I posted a great graphic analysis of the color changes to the Crayola over the last 100 years. In the past week, I have linked to a blog that is considering alternate designs for airline boarding passes, a set of college calculus cheat sheets, the fictitious Atari 2600 Avatar game, Sally Hogsheads' Hog-isms, and a video of The Decade from the Covers of Magazines.

I can be a little noisy, but you might find some other interesting stuff there.

Posted onTuesday, Jan 19, 2010 in Big Ideas, Design, Media | Permalink | Comments

When We See What's Truly Possible

I studied mechanical engineering in college and in my senior year, I took an elective course in plastics.

In the mid-90's, there was a big push to use plastic for everything--bottles, trash cans, lawn chairs. No one understood well how to design in these new materials and the answer normally was to make "it" thicker or add a gusset here or there for strength and support.

I remember vividly one of the final lectures of the class when the instructor talked about what the evolution of design would be like.

First, we mimic what was done before. We take what was metal and do the same but in plastic. The object looks the same. The object functions the same. And we likely save some money.

The second evolution is when we truly understand the characteristics of the new material. The object's function remains, but the form is something completely different from what we could have imagined before.

Cool Hunting yesterday highlighted the Foodpod. Think about the evolution of colanders. Only fifteen years later are we getting around to seeing what it truly possible in plastics

You can see the same thing in the touchpad mock-up of The Sports Illustrated that has been circulating. We are almost to the point that we can envision a new form of media that will inherently function better than what existed before.

Posted onFriday, Dec 11, 2009 in Design, Media | Permalink | Comments

a really short moment

There is going to be a moment and
it is actually going to be a really short moment,
in relationship to all this other
garbage
yougottadotogettothepointyougettomake the stuff.
But that is the thing that I kinda live for.
It is like there is this one moment where
you
figure it out,
and you get it,
and you think it is going to be the best thing you have ever did.

And it is really really exciting
and I never get over it
and it hasn't changed in 34 years
and as long as you can feel that,
you can do it.

-Taken from and inspired by Paula Sher: Type is Image

[hat tip: Signal vs Noise]

Posted onMonday, Nov 9, 2009 in Design | Permalink | Comments