Russell Davies

no empty bench in soho square

i walked through soho square the other morning and found myself completely affected by this bench. it always slips my mind that there'll be no more kirsty maccoll albums. gorgeous voice. lovely songs.

seeing this reminded me of a great thing, which i've not seen, because richmond park is too damn far. an ian dury memorial bench - where you can plug in your headphones and listen to music and interviews. and it's solar powered. this is the designer.

it also made me think about those bbc4 benches on the south bank. 'everybody needs a place to think'. i'm surprised people aren't doing more benches as (dread words) 'ambient media'. at least you're giving something back when you do that, rather than just creating more clutter and crap.

which are you?

I found this image at snarkhunting. is there an industry on earth more confusing and pointless than the US automotive industry? the SUV gets popular because of a tax loophole. they make thousands of different models, have all kinds of pointless brands, and then do things like this. sell incredibly similar vehicles in slightly different ways.

snakes

i like this, this is the snake-oil that advertising often gets compared to. and look, it's made in portland, oregon. home of my beloved wieden + kennedy.

tabasco

this is just a great example of the power of consistent design. it's not a hugely original advertising idea, lots of people have done something similar. but it's a great testament to the product designers.

butthead astronomer

from American Invisible.

Sagan was known to have a bit of an ego. In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name "Sagan", in honor of the astronomer. Though the project name was strictly internal and never used in public marketing, when Sagan learned of this internal usage, he sued Apple Computer to use a different project name. Though Sagan lost the suit, Apple engineers complied with his demands anyway, renaming the project "Butthead Astronomer". Sagan sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt and ridicule. Sagan lost this lawsuit as well.

rd

top bloke

from an interview with Anthony Lane:

"The truth is, that if you're working on a piece at three in the morning, you're not Keats; you're just late. The glitch in this argument is that I'm not a creative writer. I don't write poetry or novels or drama but criticism, which is the eunuch of the family. I watch other people doing it and talk about what they're doing in a squeaky, high voice."

you can't argue with the data

this is a graphic from The Economist. And we were thinking of buying a house too.

craft in advertising

this is a great site; snapshots of hand-crafted and hand-painted signs - often of course, ads or ad-like things. it's good to remember that in a world where everything is easily produced, and desktop publishing makes everything neat, that there's an intimacy that only the hand-painted can achieve.

for a more professional take on the same thing you can visit the american sign museum.

push pull

this is me ranting about design again. and the brain in some way. this is the inside of a yo sushi. looking out through the door. and what do you do when you see this sign? you pull. which, of course, is wrong. your back-brain or unconscious or whatever you're supposed to call it decodes what it says and tells you to pull. you need your conscious brain to go the step further - ie decode what it says, work out that it's on the other side of the door and that means you need to push. you shouldn't be engaging your conscious brain in decisions about getting through doors. hmm.

alternative names for planning - part many

Office Of Strategic Services (America's first intelligence service - created during WWII)