OK, to be honest this is a bit shit. But what's interesting is that Uniqlo have form here and they're trying to use Twitter as a direct sales thing. I'd lov eto know what the stats are.
Although this isn't quite right it intrigues me and makes me click on the emails. It also feels like it's in the right area. They could be on to something here.
And we're back. With a list. You know, that 5 things I'm thinking about right now thing.
1. Design as Algorithm
I should explain this properly in a post. Maybe I will. Russell and I have talked about this a lot, Matt has joined in and I started talking about it a little bit at IDSA. There's a new world emerging of frameworks and fuzzy rules. Flipboard is a recent example.
And then there's this from the latest Shirky book, "Creating something personal, even of moderate quality, has a different kind of appeal than consuming something made by others, even something of high quality. I was wrong about Geocities because I bet that amateurs would never want to do anything other than consume. (That was the last time I ever made that mistake.)"
And then there's this that Iain wrote in an NMA article back in March, "If we want to create provocative, challenging and culturally relevant digital work, we need to smash the hen-house and go free-range." Smart chap that Iain.
I'm aware that most of that probably won't make any sense. It's in note form. It's pretty random. I know what I mean. It's one of the things I'm thinking about right now.
2. Who's good? Right now?
Someone asked me this the other day. Difficult question. Especially hard to answer when put on the spot. But I said, Stamen (who I'm lucky enough to be working with on a forthcoming project), BERG and Someone. Not a particularly surprising list. Who is else is "good" right now?
3. James Bridle
Or more accurately "James Bridle". A new type of smart, nimble creator. A person who switches between real and virtual like Lewis Hamilton switches gears. A person you will want to employ but you can't employ. (You can hire him, you can't employ him.) A person constantly thinking of new clever thoughts that slowly push away at a much bigger theory. If you go and see his talk at dConstruct on Friday you'll know what I mean.
4. The BRIG
What is it? And all that.
5. What's next?
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Oh I forgot one thing.
On Thursday afternoon I'll be speaking at the IDSA Conference in Portland, Oregon. Mainly about DIY Design my talk is called Back to Atoms.
Looks like a great conference. Other speakers include Bill Moggridge, John Jay, Dale Dougherty from Make, Chad Jennings from Blurb and others. Should you be in town tickets are available here.
My good friend Paul, who used to be a Brand Manager for a product in the Chilled Foods aisle, is trying to revive that trend where you announce on your blog when you're going to be away. I'm happy to help. As is now traditional NDG will be closed for the whole of August.
Due to the global economic downturn we won't be having a Guest Blogger this summer. Cut backs.
We will return in September refreshed and bursting with all the latest design industry gossip, in depth analysis and kerning news. Until then, keep it between the navigational beacons.
I'm really sorry I'm going to have to cancel Blogging Drinks.
Actually, what I mean is that I can't make blogging drinks anymore. But that's no reason for it not to go ahead. Several people have expressed an interest. So if you'd like to organise that in the comments, feel free.
I keep noticing these Cycle Hire things. And yesterday I saw Boris cycling home. These are both good things.
This Cycle Hire scheme is a good thing. A very good thing. I know there are haterz, I know the scheme isn't perfect. I know it's sponsored by a bank (and I know you hate them) and I know it was introduced by a Tory mayor (and I know you hate them) but it's still a good thing. Not perfect. But good. It's the kind of thing you would see abroad and then come home and rave about. But it's not abroad it's in our very own London.
This signs are good. Not perfect, but better than not having them. They've done a decent job on the design. They make a lot more sense than most You Are wHere? maps. Likewise, to have a mayor that cycles to work is a good thing. Might be the only good thing about Boris (I know you all hate him) but I'd rather he cycled than he didn't. Just as I'd rather Barclays sponsored the blue cycle lanes than we didn't have them at all.
It's not perfect, but neither is life.
Profound, I know.
http://blog.newspaperclub.co.uk/2010/07/15/what-would-you-like-us-to-do-next/
I don't know about you but my favourite measurement is the moonandback. The distance to the moon is 385,000,000,000 mm.
The size of an unkerned piece of normal cut Helvetica at 100pt is 136.23 mm.
Therefore it would take 2,826,206,643.42 helveticas to get to the moon.
I was at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. As ever I was keeping my eye out for some interesting graphics design.
This font only seemed to be used on the tickets and car park stickers, but I thought it was quite interesting. I'm assuming it was hand drawn, mainly because I can't be bothered to look for it online. It's obviously been designed to resemble a motor racing track. I think it does that well. Not line crosses another, you can 'race' your finger round each 'track'.
Sure, it's a teeny bit cheesy, but it's a decent idea and it's a very had thing to pull off. It's cute and it's simple enough to read. AND READABILITY is important. It's also a nice change from the speeding lines typography and forties pastiche you normally get at motorsport events.
It's not perfect. It's not brilliant. But I like it.
They are always awesome. Sunday was no different.
I have a friend who's a Social Media Consultant (I know, I know) and every time he blogs he posts a link on his Twitter account. I've never been a fan of this approach, and while I am on Twitter I've never posted a link to my blog up there. I prefer to just say what I'm doing. You know, in a meeting, in a queue, watching X Factor etc.
But my friend tells me I am behind the times! I should post my links! Twitter is the new RSS he cries! What about your personal brand!
Maybe he's got a point. So, I've started a Noisy Decent Graphics twitter account. http://twitter.com/NsyDcntGrphcs
Er, yes. NsyDcntGrphcs. Twitter doesn't give me enough characters for Noisy Decent Graphics so I disemvowled it. Like in the good old days. Anyway, the NDG twitter feed will automatically post links to my blog posts live-as-they-happen! So if you like to follow blogs and feeds and stuff via Twitter, you now can.
All thanks to my Social Media Consultant friend. Bless him.
London is better with these flags, these nations.
In the evening, somewhere out East. All welcome. The more nutters the merrier.
When I talked about Sports Dataviz earlier I got sent hundreds of emails telling me about sports data apps. While none of them really do dataviz there's something interesting in the dedicated sports data app. The visual language from some sports just seems to suit this fragmented digital, continuous partial attention lifestyle.
A cricket scoreboard works perfectly in that glowing rectangle.
Likewise, a tennis scoreboard. And that yellow type is so evocative.
And then there's a current one, the Tour De France. That doesn't work at all. That's slightly unfair because The Tour doesn't have the same scoreboard iconography. What's also interesting is that these apps are hugely relevant for a very short period of time, just two weeks in the case of Wimbledon.
That reminds me of earlier in the year when we talked about pop-up shops. Here's what I said,
"Which makes me wonder if we'll start to see big, famous brands who only have high street shops at certain times of the year. The pop-up shop concept but slightly more permanent , regular and on the busiest high streets. Borders and HMV strike me as good examples. Everyone knows that the internet is killing the high street bookshop and record shop. Borders are in administration. That's old news. But every Christmas Waterstones and Borders are always packed. So maybe we'll see brands, old brands I guess, that exist all year round but massively ramp up their high street presence at certain times of the year. Most of these businesses make all their profit in one quarter of the year anyway. Greatly reduced costs, same profit."
Rapha's previously mentioned cafe has opened specifically for The Tour and the Look Ma No Hands bike friendly cafe was doing a roaring trade thanks to today's stage.
Back to apps. Somehow the growth and ubiquitous nature of apps seems to fit the pop-up shop model. Pay £5.99 for a Tour De France app and then forget about it for 11 months of year. Then fire it up again a year later. I don't know - I'm rambling now. But there's something in all this.
And don't those icons look cute.
Sports has always sprouted lots of data. (I'm reminded of DJ Stout's forthcoming baseball book.) Technology means there's now even more. Sports dataviz is going to be huge.
I bought this F1 iPad app the other day. Even at twenty quid it's still really good. Live tracking over the cars during a race. Click on a circle and get more info.
Lovely 3D interactions, live data, decent visuals. (Graphically it's not that exciting but I'm sure there is prettier stuff coming...)
We will see more of this.
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