An article by Warren Berger, in his words: For the last two years, I’ve been doing to designers what they usually do unto others. Which is to say, I’ve been observing and studying them, asking a lot of questions and trying to discern patterns. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Designers question

2. Designers connect

3. Designers commit

4. Designers care

Read article »

Oh happy day for interactive developers and designers. Apparently Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual Flash content and making it searchable in its browsers! This means more visibility and less jumping through hoops for those who want to use flash in their web applications.

Read the article here.

An 86 year old Japanese Buddhist nun is focused on the forefront of mobile technology by writing a cellphone novel. Cellphone novels are a growing trend in Japan, where subscribers (usually young women) sign up to receive short fiction via text messages. The story, called "Tomorrow's Rainbow" focuses on a young girl who meets the love of her life after the trauma of her parents' divorce.

Read More about it here.

Jacqui Cheng over at Ars Technica writes...

"How many times have you stumbled home after a long night out with
friends, only to plop down in front of the computer and start sending
e-mails that you would wake up regretting the next day? ..."

"Called "Mail Goggles," the Gmail add-on makes sending e-mail from Gmail
more difficult during certain times that you can set manually (while
sober, that is). How does it do this? If you have Mail Goggles
installed—which you can do by going to the "Labs" tab under your Gmail
settings and turning them on—it will force you to answer a series of
math questions before sending out any new messages..."

Read the full article here.

OMG I love robots. Seriously. (About as much as I love David Bowie.)

That's why I have to go check out Wakamuru who is "interning" at the NYC Uniqlo flagship store. I found this all out through his blog. Man, even robots have blogs these days. Check it out here. Apparently he also has a Facebook page. And a twitter page is in the works. So social-networky those robots are. So cute!

Wakamaru is "The robot designed to live with humans." "(the) design concept was to create "an object that can approach its user." "Wakamaru" is designed in the shape of a human being so that it is not considered simply a "machine" or a "terminal," but rather an "independent personality." Its cute expression and form make it appear friendly to everyone from children to elderly people, and suggest a possibility of human growth and development. "

Among his technological accomplishments, he can recognize faces (up to 100 people), respond when spoken to, meet a person's gaze, and offer up subjects of conversation. As "wakamaru" freely moves about an area he can decide for himself when to recharge – requiring no human assistance. He can also check your email, read you the news (from various feeds), schedule things for you, and take pictures and video for you that you can check remotely.

Read more about Wakamuru here.

Canon launches the new DSLR with full HD Video. The camera stands to re-define an industry that seems to be ever-developing at a break neck pace. I can't wait to test drive this one!

Read the full article in Gizmodo »»

Last Saturday ,  there was an opening of a group exhibition featuring commissioned works by 130 something artists at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea.

I didn't want to go because it was storming like crazy!!  However, the gallery was packed with so many people.

All the artists got a 7” x 5” wooden panel, and those artworks created a single continuous work. I liked some paintings a lot. But some were just crappy things and the price were like $600....?!  I don't know what Art is!

At least, I got free beer-.

http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/?method=Exhibit.ExhibitDescription&ExhibitID=FB86C9CC-19DB-5802-E0C4211518300C5B

This morning I came across a really fascinating article covering the debate over inexpensive online logo & "branding" companies by Doug Bartow (id29) via the Under Consideration design discussion blog Speak Up.

It highlights the ongoing debate of accessibility of design for all (income brackets) versus "...the devaluation of the design process altogether, particularly in brand development and identity design, which many consider the pinnacle of our field." – by cheapening the proverbial playing field.

In his field study of this issue, Doug commissions 4 different online companies to come up with logo options for a fictitious project and then analyzes and critiques the results. It is a good exploration of what you really get from these types of logo chop shops.

The Challenge: Hire four online logo design companies, give them the same visual identity problem to solve, then critique the results.

Take a look here.

The LUPE may look like another touchscreen camera but this concept is designed for ease of use and simplicity even tho technically it’s quite complex.

“Meyer says all the lights go dim because there just isn't enough power to go around.” Doing several things at once can feel so productive. But scientists say switching rapidly between tasks can actually slow us down. Even though modern technology allows people to perform more tasks at the same time, juggling tasks can make our brains lose connections to important information. Which means, in the end, it takes longer because we have to remind our brains what we were working on .. David Meyer at the University of Michigan has spent the past few decades studying multitasking — mostly in adults. "For tasks that are at all complicated, no matter how good you have become at multitasking, you're still going to suffer hits against your performance. You will be worse compared to if you were actually concentrating from start to finish on the task," Meyer says. Multitasking causes a kind of brownout in the brain. Meyer says all the lights go dim because there just isn't enough power to go around. So, the brain starts shutting things down — things like neural connections to important information. Scientists say she has reason to be worried — although there's not much data yet on teens. Think you can be Top Gun?

Breathtaking full HD video. Sure, the Casio EX-F1 shoots great slow-mo footage for a consumer camera. But it can't touch the footage that the SprintCam V3 HD pumps out. Amazing.

Rebranding & overhauling their corporate images that is... from Starbucks to AT&T – and Walmart is the latest to jump on that bandwagon.

Check out this Businessweek article on corporate rebranding.

A little while back, AOL site Spinner.com, posted the top 25 band logos "of all time" (personally, which I think is still up for debate).

Which reminded me of another site, http://pictograms.blogspot.com/ which has been archiving a huge collection of band logos, fonts, and iconography as well.

The designs for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing have been revealed, called "Fuwa" (below). It's being reported in the WSJ that even the mascots' designer doesn't want to take responsibility if these don't go down in history as iconic Olympic mascots.

Not that the Fuwa have been the only controversial mascots; since its inception at the Munich games in 1972, the Olympic mascot has always been a source of debate (more mascots below after the jump). The article goes on to state how the Fuwa may be the result of "Too Many Chefs" syndrome and a bureaucratic backlog, a challenge in trying to create an iconic image representing 1.3 billion people and their history - the five Fuwa were pared down from over 1,000 sketches submitted by the artist.

Not sure what I think about them...any thoughts?

Continue reading to see some other mascots from past Olympics...

The first Olympic mascot - Waldi (Munich 1972)

Cobi (Barcelona 1992)

Izzy (Atlanta 1996)

Syd, Ollie, and Millie (Sydney 2000)

Athena and Phevos (Athens 2004)

Just in case you were wondering whether the Hadron Collider being tested right now at CERN has destroyed the world yet, you now have a handy website to go to check it out: http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

A wise man once said, "Wherever you go, there you are," and now with Geode, announced today from Mozilla Labs, your web browser will know where you are as well. Geode will be available in the upcoming beta releases of Firefox 3.1, and will allow users to fire up their computers from any location, direct their browser to their favorite review site (like Yelp, Citysearch, etc.), and have customized location-specific information surfaced. But the potential expands beyond just fun - imagine an RSS reader that knows the difference between Home and Work, or a news website that is truly local. Read more at the Mozilla Labs blog.

No need to fret - turns out all that time spent trawling the search engines for the latest and greatest gossip...er...important news items is in no way detrimental to your brain functionality. On the contrary, a recent study shows that this activity among seasoned internet users actually promotes brain activity. Check out the full article at USA Today.