06.15.15 |
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Very solid design (with an unusual color palette) to a free 5-week email course. As author Jarrod Drysdale writes:
The Tiny Designer is a course about the big (monumental, even) design that we can make together. Non-designers will learn the important parts of design, so that you can understand what designers do, achieve your goals, and better communicate your ideas. Designers: learn to teach and guide others through your design process so they’ll better appreciate what you do.
I’ve written previously (and given a webinar) about team relationships and how important collaboration is. This course looks like it could share some helpful, related advice.
06.12.15 |
Gaming |
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I expect stability and predictability from the big three (Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony) E3 pressers this year. First, we’re a year and half into this generation. It’s past the bumpy launch window, but not far enough for new hardware iterations. PS4 and Xbox One sales are already strong, which reinforces a conservative playbook. And many games for the show have been formally revealed early or leaked. Yet there are unknowns that the pressers next week could help answer.
Continue reading…
06.05.15 |
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Slashfilm’s Angie Han on yet another aspect of Mad Max: Fury Road that’s great (seriously, if you haven’t seen this movie yet on the biggest screen possible, get on that stat):
But the film has just as much to say about men — specifically what masculinity is, and what place it has in our society. At the center of the film are two types of masculinity: the toxic, destructive kind represented by Immortan Joe, and the healthy, productive kind represented by Max. The conflict between them drives the movie, and points a way forward for our world.
06.02.15 |
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I’m giving a free webinar over at InVision a week from today (6/9) at 3pm EST. It’s all about building responsive teams, teams well equipped for responsive web design and native design on multiple, changing devices. No prerequisites – if you’re a designer, developer, project manager, or practically anyone working in or around a tech team, hopefully you’ll find something of interest. Just register in advance and you’ll be able to stream the video and audio live. (I expect an archive of the talk will be up later as well for those who can’t make it.)
06.01.15 |
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Practical Typography’s Matthew Butterick on Medium and other similar writing platforms:
We can’t say that Medium et al. are offering minimalist design. Only the veneer is minimalist. What they’re re ally offering is a shift from design as a choice to de sign as a constant. Instead of minimalist design, a better term might be homogeneous design.
Matthew is clearly anti-Medium with his stance here, and he goes onto attack many fronts; lack of typographic customization is just the beginning. Pro or con Medium as a publishing platform for the future, it’s nevertheless an excellent read.
05.31.15 |
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Judy Berman writing for The Dissolve on von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg’s famous film movement and its underrated positive impact for female directors:
By denouncing the high-priced spectacles and “superficial action” that have since reached their hysterical apotheosis in city-smashing, vehicle-exploding superhero franchises, von Trier and Vinterberg were countering a trend toward the hyper-masculinization of film. The manifesto’s exhortation to make low-budget films built around “characters’ inner lives” was a mandate to ignore superficial differences and find what makes each character different, as well as what is universal about all human experience.
05.29.15 |
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Designer Thomas Byttebier covers typographic basics for UI design. Spoiler alert: Helvetica gets some (well deserved) dings.
05.28.15 |
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Simple, core design principles. No fluff, read and review in a half hour, and great reading for those that don’t practice design but work with people that do.
05.22.15 |
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Mark Llobrera, writing on a wonderful post regarding Facebook’s Instant Articles and web performance over at A List Apart:
For most of us, even the ones I would describe as pro-performance, everything in the contemporary web design production pipeline works against the very focus required to keep the web fast. Unless you make some fundamental choices and set up clear constraints, you can—and will—build and ship beautiful sites without feeling a single ounce of the pain and frustration that your users encounter when all of that beautiful imagery, CSS, and JavaScript comes trickling down their mobile network.
05.20.15 |
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I use ColorSnapper most days to select and compare colors on web sites, Sketch files, and more. I’ve tried other color pickers, but this app remains my favorite. Version 2.0 adds a smarter magnifying glass, Alfred-style color export formats and other enhancements.