Recently about Things We Like

I'd like to think that one of Apple's biggest announcements recently is one of the smallest, most overlooked ones. I'm loving that they just came out with a well-thought-out AA battery charging system. Not that I need a new one. But Apple has a way of making rabid fanboys out of even the simplest things. If they can successfully make rechargeable batteries seem cool to the tech set - like they do with almost everything they touch - it could be one of the best things they have ever done for the environment.

We've been doing a lot of work lately gearing up for the New Aging Conference at UPenn in October (including the web site and this brochure). But I really love what the UPenn students did with these makeover videos: Aging 60 years in 60 seconds.

Our officemates at HWKN just launched a cool new web site: Architizer - social media for architects and architecture enthusiasts. Go poke around and learn about some great architecture from around the globe - like Rem Koolhaas' amazing CCTV headquarters in Beijing, or the undulating Aqua Tower which I watched go up in Chicago last year. And of course, I'm partial to this one.

Happy Earth day from Ultra Virgo! While we're firm believers in practicing sustainability year round, it's always nice to celebrate our mother. Check out some of the green events around town here, here and here  or take the opportunity to join Repower America

We've been working on a lot of identity projects lately. And the number one resource we always turn to when developing a logo is LogoLounge. It's easy to get a sense of the competitive visual landscape for a particular industry and identify trends that should be utilized or avoided. In particular, I highly recommend their annual curated books that are organized by subject matter (which we've been featured in).

I've just returned freshly inspired from a visit to New Orleans, where the city is beginning to buzz with preparations for the Prospect 1 Biennial opening in 1 month. I was down there working on the open air project, sponsered by the Arts Council of New Orleans and opening concurrently. A friend's gallery/experiment was just written up in the style section of the NY times. KK Projects has taken over a block of hurricane destroyed houses and given a new life and a little magic to the area.

Necessity is the mother of research and development. I've been looking at baby carriers, and finally chose one. I love guessing how the design of products like this started with something old and people added their own clever ideas until now it can be used front or back, transferred from person to person with the baby inside, and with a pocket to carry essentials.

Following up on my last post musing about when people can understand warning and bathroom signs, here's a light hearted site about them, should you need a warning sign of your own. Alert the world to Godzilla, gas masks, or what looks to me like a flashing fairy wand. Or check out Speak Up for more about pictograms.

Check out the video preview of Marion Bataille's book ABC3D a gorgeous alphabet pop-up book with a swing soundtrack.

As Pamela mentioned previously, we've been fascinated with music visualization lately. I came across this mesmerizing video of Bach. (Though I keep wanting a paddle and ball to appear.) Of course, the ultimate physical description of music was the grooves in LPs - I remember being fascinated by the guy that could identify records simply by looking at the vinyl grooves.

This site turns text you submit into "word clouds."
You can adjust fonts, color schemes, and a variety of other parameters. Perhaps a functional capability will come to me, but in the meantime it's a pretty good toy.

For Bruce Levingston's upcoming album design, Patrick and I were interested in exploring visual representations of musical form. In researching for it, I came across this project: The Shape of Song. They've built a program which diagrams out the connection of notes in arches of varying size - they also have an extensive library of songs... in glorious MIDI.

I'm working on a project for Scholastic Books and get to check out new picture books and illustrators. I want a picture of Jeremy Tankard's Grumpy Bird to show up automatically on my computer screen when I'm having a grumpy morning too.

As we pass the 1-year anniversary of the iPhone launch, the flood of so-called "wannabe" iPhones is coming in. And of course the press compares them all to Apple's device: mentioning how the new offering is feature-packed and great, but falls short. (Of note: In Mossberg's WSJ review of the Instinct, the iPhone is mentioned 29 times, the Instinct itself only 16.) Why? Across the board it is the design. It's the ease-of-use and polish of Apple's User Interface that still trumps even products with much better specs.