Hoefler & Frere Jones always have something interesting to say. Their recent article On the Death and 441-Year Life of the Pixel waves goodbye to the pixel as monitors using utterly unpronounceable acronyms for their technologies achieve higher and higher resolutions. One of the obvious benefits is we should expect to see a vast improvement in on-screen typography as we’re no longer having to hint at the subtleties of type as if seen through the compound eyes of an insect. We can also look forward to laughing at outdated websites designed for 640×480 monitors sitting in the corner of our screens like letters to Lilliput. The downside is of course no longer being able to take a preview image from ghetty, crop off the watermark and still have a sizable hero image for the homepage, ahem.
In general design is always about overcoming challenges and in web design the challenge has always been how to convey all the information you’d find in a magazine, brochure or catalogue but on something the size of a postage stamp or business card at best. Soon that problem will go away for good and web designers will be faced with the rather more frightening challenge of learning how properly to use all that extra space. Web designers now have a lot to learn from print designers.
I do wish H&FJ had wheeled out those old embroidery patterns a bit sooner.

Google favicon revamp

Originally uploaded by hobart65

If you are of the typographic nature, you might have noticed the google favicon went lower case sometime in June. Here’s the backstory from the Google blog about the revamp . Google badly need some form of graphic device or framework to unite its ballooning set of services. Interesting that they start with the favicon, something most branding companies would do last.

” You may have noticed that Google has a new favicon, the small icon you see in your browser next to the URL or in your bookmarks list. Some people have wondered why we changed our favicon — after all, we hadn’t in 8.5 years(!)”

Link: one-fish-two-fish-red-fish-blue-fish

[youtube EoZmBjaFWto]

Another piece of visual evidence to support that truism – everything just looks more cool in slowmo. The digirati in the studio have had this one on their desktopa for weeks, but it occurred to me how amazing that camera / phone manufactures haven’t latched onto this. How many hi-end phones / camera / camcorders can capture stuff at ridiculous frame rates? Answers please, as i’d like to buy one so I can make my own series of ephemera screen savers.

[dailymotion x4sesd]

Enough to make me buy it.

Thanks to Ryan Tym.

Rem Koolhaas is a total…

Originally uploaded by hobart65

Please fill in the blanks.

Amazing to see something in real life that resembles the channel 4 idents. Koolhaass divides people like marmite, but he is coming of age through the ambition and wealth of the emergent economies. Normally radical intellectual architects only get to make models, talk and write books. But, he’s building a full 1 kilometer square city in Dubai. Resulting in very questionable things like the Koolhaass Dubai Deathstar.

Some bright sparks at AQ Interactive have created a music application for the DS. Called the Korg DS10, it has synthesiser, drum machine, sequencer and effects and filters.

[youtube rorBOzwR3Tc]

The idea is great but, for me, it’s the interface that will be the most interesting thing to explore. No use of the D-Pad or buttons, the whole thing is managed through the touch-screen. So many possibilities – can a novice keep track?

Look forward to trying it out.

Posted to subotron. Thanks to Conor for pointing it out.

Der Spiegel reports that Klaus Kjöller of the University of Copenhagen has accused IKEA of “Swedish imperialism”. Apparently he and a friend, after an exhaustive study of the latest catalogue (along with the rest of North London) , have discovered that super items like beds get Swedish names whereas less-super items like floor mats get Danish names.

I wish everyone could just get along. But if you’re going to have a tiff then surely using something as non-confrontational as the names of functional items for the home should be applauded. No broken bones or black eyes. For now anyway.

Source: Thanks goes out to a colleague on the Hamburg office. We’re a network you see.

Angus now owns a keyboard that was owned by Steve Gray, keyboardist with the intrumental powerhouse that was Sky. It’s signed and everything.

I’m actually quite fondly remember the logo and this album. Although I’m not that fond of this animation. But I’m going to keep using it because it’s giving me a headache.

Steve didn’t join until Sky 4. Quite late. Wonder if he missed out on all the rock and roll. Feel their power.

– STOP PRESS – UPDATE – STOP PRESS – UPDATE –

The keyboard is in fact the legendary Yamaha CS-01 made famous by such luminaries as Chick Corea, OMD, Tim Simenon, Patrick Swayze an, of course, Steve Gray.

Here’s a picture of this sweet piece of kit:

And the message from Steve: