Tablet PC Sylvia Harris : 1953-2011 Butterfly in meadow, Seal Cove, Maine, 2011 In the spring after my mother died, I was in the garden with our daughter, Fiona, then just four years old, when we noticed a large, orange butterfly. Wherever we went, went the butterfly — through the garden, past the stone walls, up and down the hill — hovering near us for close to an hour. “Buddhists believe that after a person dies, their soul remains present for awhile,” I told Fiona. “So maybe that butterfly is really Nini,” I added, referring to the name our children used for their grandmother. Fiona poked at the earth with her plastic shovel, pretending to plant something, and said nothing. “Daddy’s mother is downstairs,” she announced, a propos of nothing. I first met Sylvia in 1979, when I was still a teenager and she was a graduate student in graphic design at Yale. But my experience of Sylvia was a personal one — tethered to professional practice in a way, but enriched and ennobled by who she was, not what she did. So, here goes.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Tablet Review The Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Tablet doesn't stand on its own. But when paired with its matching keyboard dock, the Transformer morphs into a tablet that strikes an admirable balance between productivity and entertainment. At $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model (or $499 for the 32GB Wi-Fi model, prices as of May 6, 2011), the Transformer is the least expensive Android 3.0 tablet to date; and the smaller-capacity version bests Apple's iPad 2 by $100. None of this is to say that the Transformer's implementation is perfect. The hardware has some rough spots, and so do the Android OS and the $149 Mobile Docking Station option. Transformer's Hardware: Design Wins and Flubs In its design, the Transformer shares some characteristics with other current tablets. Like many of today's tablets--the superslim Apple iPad 2 being the notable exception--the Transformer measures 0.5 inch tall. What I found most disappointing about the Transformer was its physical build. Transformer's Software, Customized
Competition: five copies of Folding Techniques for Designers to be won Competition: we've teamed up with publishers Laurence King to give Dezeen readers the chance to win one of five copies of Folding Techniques for Designers. The 224-page paperback book gives step-by-step instructions for creating 3D paper forms through photographs, diagrams and drawings. These movies show demonstrations by the book's author Paul Jackson - watch more movies in this series on the Laurence King website and check out their Facebook page. This competition is now closed. Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions. Here's some more information from Laurence King: Folding Techniques for Designers From Sheet to Form by Paul Jackson Folding Techniques for Designers by Paul Jackson and published by Laurence King in May 2011 is an elegant, practical handbook, covering more than 70 folding techniques explained through clear step-by- step drawings, crease-pattern drawings and specially commissioned photography.
Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt » Steve Jobs, Thank You for Contributing to My indePendence With the rest of the technologically innovative world, I am saddened by the passing, today, of Steve Jobs due to pancreatic cancer. Damn cancer. I have written many posts on how the iPad changed my life in a relatively short time; on how the iPad gave me an affordable, acceptable and cool communication device and how that has further opened the world and opportunities to me. But one intended post I didn’t write – partly because I didn’t know how to express my sentiments and partly because I thought I still had time – was a thank you to Steve Jobs for his innovative vision and to the Apple Development Team for turning his vision into reality. Steve, your iPad gave me something that no other device has: a way to communicate with those who are not familiar with my unique accent Glenda-ish. I cannot find the words to express how grateful I am for that; something which others may brush off as insignificant, but, for me, is a life changer and hugely contributes to my independence.
These Brands Allow Users To Design Them. How'd They Pull It Off? | Co. Design Branding continues to evolve at a gallop, spurred this time by advancing technology and the rise of social media. "The internet has challenged the conventions of branding,? says Simon Browning, a brand specialist at Tokyo creative agency EAT. "We believe that smart companies will shift focus from logos and CI's to actively demonstrate what they are capable of and establish innovative policies that people can align with." Logos, to be sure, are inching towards interactivity and mutability: There's Bruce Mau's frame logo for an art school, which is filled with student works like a gallery wall; the MIT Media Lab's morphing logo; and Google's web signage, which was recently made into a pluckable guitar. These logos don't just change; the patrons of the brand change them. SALT debuted in Istanbul this summer with an identity by New York graphics studio, Project Projects. Provoke participation Make the system bigger than you Create, share, distribute
20 Creative iPad Apps For Web Developers And Designers Now that the iPad has been released, web developers and designers alike want to know which apps are worthy of their fingerprints. To help make the search a bit easier, I’ve compiled a collection of 20 creative iPad apps that should prove quite useful for web designers, graphic designers and anyone with a creative mind. We’ll take a look at applications that will help you get your sketch on, interact with your sites, check stats, brainstorm and even a game or two. Adobe Ideas Adobe Ideas is your digital sketchbook, letting you capture and explore ideas anywhere you go. Analytics HD The premier app for Google Analytics, Analytics App, now debuts on the iPad as Analytics HD. iThoughtsHD (mindmapping) iThoughtsHD is a mind mapping tool for the iPad. Freeform Freeform is a simple vector drawing tool for sketching quick doodles, creating fun drawings or designing simple diagrams and illustrations. The Font Game Things for iPad Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager.
ChangeOrder: How to Conduct Post-Mortem Project Evaluations This is an extensive rewrite of a previous ChangeOrder post for my next book Design Business from A to Z—so much so I'm reposting it! The website went live last week, and the entire staff is throwing a party to celebrate! The developers are huddled in the corner with some microbrews, plotting how they'll splice into the agency intranet to add a virtual dartboard. Designers are mingling with the copywriters and account people, clinking wineglasses and bonding over the ads they saw during The Office. Yes, the job went way over budget—and the last thing your team wants to think about is who needs to take responsibility for it. Not the best time to mention that tomorrow, you're scheduling a post-mortem meeting (a.k.a. lessons learned, post future, etc.) to talk about how the project really went. Was the estimate wrong to begin with? The flow of a well-structured post-mortem meeting Here’s a draft agenda for an hour-long post-mortem meeting. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
NPR for iPad Understand the Psychology of Design Excerpted from 100 Things Every Designer Should Know About People by Susan Weinschenk. Copyright © 2011. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders. To receive a 35% discount on this book, go to the Peachpit Press Online Store and enter the discount code 100T during the checkout process. This offer is valid through December 2012. In addition to the HTML version of the excerpt below, you can also download the excerpt as a PDF that retains the full design of the printed book. WHAT YOU SEE ISN'T WHAT YOUR BRAIN GETS You think that as you're walking around looking at the world, your eyes are sending information to your brain, which processes it and gives you a realistic experience of "what's out there." Figure 1. What do you see? Figure 2. The Brain Creates Shortcuts Your brain creates these shortcuts in order to quickly make sense out of the world around you. You can influence what people see, or think they see, by the use of shapes and colors. Figure 3. Figure 4.
5 Free Twitter Clients For The iPad From the official Twitter app to the broader social networking client apps, if you’re an avid Twitter and iPad user, you will no doubt want to download more than one Twitter client for iPad, because each of the ones reviewed below offer something a little unique that you may find useful to how you interact with Twitter. With the new multitasking features of the iOS 4 for the iPad, there’s little reason not to have a folder of several Twitter apps to choose from. Some client apps are great for extended Twitter browsing while others are more useful for quick tweeting and checking in on the latest updates. Twitter While there are over a dozen Twitter clients in the App Store, this Twitter (iTunes Store Link) app is sort of the official one, produced by Twitter. Website downloads in the application are fast, and the user interface is very intuitive. TwitBird NibiruTech’s TwitBird (iTunes Store Link) is a full featured Twitter client with a linear interface. TwitterBook HootSuite for Twitter
Make Grids Quickly in InDesign This article originally appeared in InDesign Magazine #37, August/September 2010. Subscribe now! Some designers use structured grid systems with guides on Master Pages to influence their layout decisions. Others rarely use formal grid systems at all. Yet all designers have the occasional need to arrange images in rows and columns, and for that, you need a grid. But how can you create a quick grid without resorting to subtraction and long division? This article explains six ways to create grids in InDesign: 1. Click the image below to read the article as a PDF:
Lose It! for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store