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From our perspective the book is an affirmation to an honest design process. For us the simplification principles are part of the intuitive process of designing. We go through a process of simplifying client’s information each time we design an interface. At the level of design we bring the three principles of Empathize, Distill and Clarify into one: Organizing Information (User Experience). Critical to our process when designing an interface is putting ourselves in the shoes of the user.

As a side note, one of the biggest complements anyone can pay a designer is by saying a piece of design is simple, clean and easy to use. Even more so when this comes from someone who is not a designer. They usually don’t even realize they are paying us a compliment. It’s usually a gut reaction they are having to whatever we are showing them and it tells us we did well.

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Definition of Mobius from britannica.com:

Möbius strip, a one-sided surface that can be constructed by affixing the ends of a rectangular strip after first having given one of the ends a one-half twist. This space exhibits interesting properties, such as having only one side and remaining in one piece when split down the middle.

I always found the Mobius to be a very interesting shape in 2-D graphics. It lends itself to very fluid logo forms and great illusion of three dimensionality. It can be executed in a variety of shapes. Below are a few possible rendering of a Mobius strip.

(Here are couple of other recent leaps in 3-D printing world:
A 3-D scanner was just introduced by MakerBot at SXSW article link. This device will allow you to scan any object smaller than 8 inches and then print it with a 3-D printer. It circumvents some obstacles in 3-D printing being utilized by many people — basic knowledge of mechanical engineering and experience using AutoCAD. Another is this 3Doodler by WobbleWorks which is the world’s first 3D printing pen article link. This pen will allow you to ‘draw’ 3-D forms.)

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Finding about this program compelled me to post a project of mine from several years ago. While I was still in school I came up with an idea of a recyclable textile and created an identity for it. Below is my original description and some images of the brand:

Aeon proposes a solution to the problem of recycling used clothing. It’s a zero-waste recycling system. The project assumes a fully recyclable synthetic fiber is invented and used by a fashion label. Once the apparel created out of Aeon fibers is worn out, or out of style, it’s to be returned to the label for a small rebate towards the purchase of new items. The used clothing is then fully recycled into new textiles.

The logomark encapsulates an ‘infinite’ circular movement. The brand name ‘Aeon’ alludes to the infinite lifespan of this fiber. Textural fiber imagery is explored in the branding components. The brand colors are blue for clear sky and brown for soil symbolizing the widespread positive impact this product would have on the environment.

-Ewa

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We recently spent some time in Iceland and drove the entire Ring Road around the country. Iceland has one of the most unique landscapes, distinct cuisine and very simple but elegant stylistic touch in architecture and decor.

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First of all, it’s likely too late for most in the work force who should know HTML to pine for a lost (necessary) education in formatting. That’s actually ok. Basic HTML formatting probably only takes a day to learn (I’m probably being generous). Every professional who is required to write things should take that day and spend the time learning how to format the things they write. HTML, for good reason, is synonymous with how websites are built. What must also be appreciated is that HTML, when used correctly, is the basis for how content is written and formatted on the web. The text I’m writing now is in a paragraph. How does this website know that it’s in a paragraph? Because it’s formatted with paragraph tags – <p> paragraph text here </p>.

Why do so many people format text badly? I’m going to say it’s not your fault if you don’t know HTML and your text content is formatted poorly. I’m going to lay the blame squarely with Microsoft Word for not enforcing good formatting habits. Have you ever tried to post your MSWord text directly into a web editor (such as the WordPress visual editor)? Quite a disaster. To be fair Word preceded HTML by nearly a decade. Yet I see no reason why it couldn’t make a better effort to help writers understand that they should be formatting text in a standard way. Instead, in Word’s modern guise, it allows for all manner of text styling which often carries over into websites wrapped in numerous, redundant style-only <span> tags.

I think part of the problem is that HTML has been trivialized and relegated to the realm of developers. HTML is for everyone! I come back to Mr. Paternoster’s point, that HTML formatting is a crucial part of web writing. It should be taught as such. If I was teaching an elementary English class I’d be looking for good semantic formatting in student papers. It wouldn’t hurt to have students submit reports in pure hypertext to bring home the point. Good formatting is certainly not hard, but it is extremely important. If you’re not doing it yet, start now!

• <h1>, <h2>,  <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>
• <p>
• <strong>
• <em>
• <ul>
• <li>
• <ol>

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Ewa recently completed a book design for the New York Center for Autism Charter School. The 24-page book contains a compilation of the drawings by the students at the Center. The themes of the drawings are butterflies, flowers and tracings of leaves. There are also a few black-and-white butterfly images that were colored-in by the students. The book celebrates the creativity and the remarkable details of these art works. Few images were included showing some of the children drawing. Description pages of the works are in complimentary or accent colors of the works. The drawings were laid out full-bleed and some across two pages to accomodate the shape of the drawing. In few instances photographs of the butterflies were included for comparison.

We were very happy to contribute in showcasing these beautiful drawings.

The book can be purchased through Amazon, click here.

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We recently visited Panama and came across this very unique and vibrant art form. Molas are created by the Kuna Yala culture indigenous to Panama and residing in the autonomous region and archipelago islands of San Blas.

The word mola literally means ‘shirt’ and traditionally is part of the female attire where two panels form front and back of the shirt. The patterns of the molas were originally painted on women’s bodies and were mostly geometric. Kuna Yala started creating the designs in fabric once Europeans brought cotton. In the last half century or so more realistic elements such as flowers, fish or birds started appearing.

Creation of molas is quite interesting. Several pieces of cotton are sewn together and then the design is created by cutting away parts of the layers. The largest pattern is usually cut from the top layer showing the smaller pattern and the colors of the layers below. Edges of the molas are then turned under and sewn. Often the stitches are made almost invisible, especially in the higher quality molas.

The picture on the bottom shows the mola we purchased. To us the colors resembled the art of the 1980s, a bit in the style of Keith Haring and the geometric patterns of the Op Art of the 60s.

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(From Save Cooper Union! A Community Summit December 5, 2011)

My name is Jason Paul —, Art 2000. I’m a designer and web developer. I helped create the CooperUnionCommons.org online community with Karina Tipton. The Save Cooper Union Facebook page has demonstrated how much students and alumni care about Cooper and want to be connected. We saw that Facebook is a fantastic entry point for conversation however its aggregation limitations quickly become apparent. Cooper Union Commons was born out of a desire for a niche social network to help forge a stronger Cooper-centric online community. The ideal I have for the network is to help keep Cooper students and alumni connected to each other in perpetuity. I believe a network like this could be introduced to students from day one as one of the main means of communication for the school. After graduation, instead of losing access to the network, they would simply keep their membership to the network increasing the likelihood that alumni will remain involved in the social world of Cooper Union.

(below) is the part of the speech I skipped to save on time

Cooper Union Commons runs on BuddyPress which is a plugin for the open source platform WordPress. We’re treating this as a beta in that anyone is welcome to join the network and contribute. An advantage of a tool like this over Facebook is that if there’s a feature you think would be useful for the site all you have to do is request it. If we can get it and it will enhance the network then we’ll install it.

The Cooper Union Commons won’t replace Facebook, the Alumni site or any other official Cooper channels. All it seeks is to be a niche social network where informal Cooper conversations can continue. The network can only succeed if it is embraced by the Cooper Union community. I encourage you all to sign up and contribute your ideas. The url is cooperunioncommons.org

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Of all the top social networks Facebook most successfully satisfies our vanity. We’ve all gone online. We want our existence reinforced. Facebook has claimed a monopoly on our actual personal networks. Twitter, Google+ and Diaspora are biased to connecting outwardly, helping us forge new networks. While this is a more noble premise if you believe in the potential of the world wide web, it also makes these networks much more disposable.

I recently allowed my birthday to appear for my Facebook friends. I received over thirty birthday wall posts. This personal and very human connection got me thinking that this is where Facebook’s advantage lies. Only Facebook virtually guarantees feedback on the signals we put out now matter how small our networks. This is because for most we’ve replicated our real life social networks on Facebook and nowhere else online.

I really like Twitter but I rarely use it for social purposes. My following is currently too small to give me much feedback on what I put out there. I do appreciate that so many reputable periodicals and notables use it to broadcast their links and links they find interesting. Twitter is life support to my Flipboard. The greatest paradox I find in Twitter is that nothing is better for receiving signals yet nothing is worse for sending them (for the average individual). I think Twitter will need to become more authentically social or the jig may be up very soon. I’m actually surprised Apple went with deep Twitter integration for the latest iOS release. I rarely use it. For photos I prefer Instagram as it sends out to several social services simultaneously. Why would I just Tweet photos when it’s nearly a guarantee no one is looking for my personal stuff there? Not saying I don’t do it but I’ve learned not to expect much feedback from Twitter. Thus far Apple hasn’t demonstrated many successful ideas for social media as relates to their software and devices.

I can see a counterpoint argument suggesting I just need to put more effort into Twitter. But why should I? My existence on Facebook is validated with minimal effort. Interestingly I’ve been getting decent feedback on Diaspora.

My Google+ profile has been floundering. My Facebook friends just did not migrate over. I dislike so much about Google right now that I can’t bring myself to invest more of my time in what feel like mediocre/unfinished products.

To circle back I don’t want to leave the impression that I’m pro-Facebook. I’m just pointing out that they will continue to be on top because they are better at finding ways to use our personal data to deliver the most meaningful signals to us. To leave off on a critical note, the Facebook paradigm feels too simplistic. The Like button has likely done irreparable damage in over-simplifying a complex world. Facebook’s presentation often feels much more superficial than the other networks.

I think the answer is not to have one network to rule them all, but to open up the ports so they can start to talk to each other. This comes back to the Promise of Diaspora. Many Diaspora users have closed out their Facebook accounts. I won’t be closing any social accounts until the day comes when I can communicate and interact with Facebookers without needing to actually be on Facebook.

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ARTnews.com has not undergone any redesign initiatives for a number of years. The project required a great deal of planning including migration of 15 years of magazine articles. We restructured the content to work within a contemporary content management system. To create the optimal User Experience and retain the traditional print magazine feel, we incorporated elements of print magazine layout and editorial design. The design and the structure is scalable and it can grow over time as new technologies become available.

Read our case study from our portfolio. And please visit the ARTnews.com website.

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The exhibit is running through August 7th at the Met Museum:

http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/

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The New Museum presents Cronocaos, OMA’s installation that asserts the critical position of preservation in archi-
tecture and urbanism. The exhibition will take place at the New Museum’s 3,600 square foot, partially renovated ground floor space at 231 Bowery. It includes historic objects and photographs, analysis of the rapid growth of preserved urban and natural territories, and a take-away display of OMA’s projects spanning thirty-five years. Cronocaos redefines this underexplored theme as one of urgency within and beyond architecture’s disciplinary boundaries.

Visit the New Museum website.

Visit the festival website.

Visit the OMA website.

Images from the talk. On the right is woman looking at Malevich’s Black Square.

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The Festival of Ideas for the New City, May 4-8, 2011, is a major new collaborative initiative in New York involving scores of Downtown organizations, from universities to arts institutions and community groups, working together to effect change. A first for New York, the Festival will harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore the ideas destined to shape it. It will take place in multiple venues Downtown and is organized around three central programs: a conference of symposia; an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery; and over one hundred independent projects and public events. The Festival will serve as a platform for artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, planners, and thought leaders to exchange ideas, propose solutions, and invite the public to participate.

Find out more at festivalofideasnyc.com

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More info on the festival

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Read more here on NASA website

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130 countries participated around the world. Earth Hour event started in 2007.

Here is the video of the lights getting turned off

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