The Best Design Books of 2012 by Maria Popova From Marshall McLuhan to Frank Lloyd Wright, or what vintage type has to do with the evolution of iconic logos. After the best science books and the best art books of 2012, the season’s best-of reading lists continue with 10 favorite design books published this year. (Catch up on last year’s reading list here.) Every once in a while, along comes a book-as-artifact that becomes an instant, inextricable necessity in the life of any graphic design aficionado. Though the concept is hardly novel, wedged somewhere between 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design and Bibliographic, the book-in-a-box execution holds a rare kind of mesmerism, its dividers inviting you to organize and explore the wealth of design legacy by designer, subject, chronology, or alphabetical order. The Man of Letters or Pierrot's Alphabet (1794) Paul Rand: IBM (1956-1991) Saul Bass: Vertigo (1958) Aleksandr Rodchencko: Luchshih Sosok ne bilo i nyet (1923) Originally featured in October. Idea # 83: PSYCHEDELIA
Searchlights and sunglasses: Chapter one Technology Tools for Teaching & Learning Used wisely, technology empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. In Leonardo’s Laptop, Ben Shneiderman provides teachers with a powerful framework, Collect-Relate-Create-Donate (CRCD), for designing student-centered learning opportunities using computers. In particular, Shneiderman’s CRCD framework emphasizes the importance of the social aspects of learning in generating creative work. In order to help educators integrate technology effectively, we have compiled a list of technology tools focused on learning goals consistent with the CRCD framework. What are your Learning Goals? I want my students to be able to create web based timelines I want my students to create web based mindmaps/graphic organizer I want my students to publish their writing online I want real-time, online discussion with my students I want my students to search and evaluate Web Sites I want to create guided research activities for my students I want my students to create online portfolios
VIDEO VÉRITÉ | The Films of Alan and Susan Raymond View the JOURNEY INTO DYSLEXIA brochure (PDF) JOURNEY INTO DYSLEXIA presents profiles of dyslexic students and adults who share their experiences of struggling in school and then succeeding in life. Academy-Award winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond examine the complexities of this differently structured brain and debunk the myths and misperceptions about dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific leaning disability that is neurobiological in origin and typically manifests through difficulty in reading, writing, spelling and math. It has nothing to do with intelligence, birth defects, or a mental illness of any kind, the home environment, level of education or economic status. Dyslexia persists throughout one's lifetime and is prevalent in every culture in the world. Surprisingly, however, Journey into Dyslexia reveals that many adult professionals who once struggled to learn in school consider their dyslexia a unique gift and the defining reason behind their success.
Old phone booths get new life as giant public fish tanks Phone booths are the appendix of the urban landscape — useless and occasionally full of junk. So what better way to rehabilitate them than to fill them with fish? The phone booths, not your appendix. Clark Kent will want to steer clear of Osaka, since there’s nowhere for him to change, but everyone else can enjoy these refurbished phone booth aquaria, courtesy of local group Kingyobu (“goldfish club”). They’re kind of like the giant-sized version of those bags of live goldfish you win at the fair, except the booths are outfitted with climate control and aeration, so the fish will still be alive tomorrow.
Copy, Adapt, Reproduce (AKA solving problems without creativity) « Mindflip Evolution has allowed life to adapt and survive in the harshest of environments. The copy, paste, randomly change model allows for life to continue evolve and succeed in incredibly hostile conditions. Survival of the Best Adapted. Yet with our own culture, rather than emulate the success of this model, we have pursued the God Model. Furthermore, should we achieve such a model, we will have created the ultimate dystopia. Our environment is changing more rapidly than this traditional model can possibly keep up. If we can’t understand these systems, how can we possibly design for them? We can’t and we shouldn’t. Instead we should adopt what has proven to be successful – Life. Copy, Adapt, Reproduce Copy: When we find a problem we should first look to find a solution that has already worked (you know how to google don’t you?) Adapt: Where different materials or localised processes are required – apply them. Reproduce: Share your successes in a way in which they can be easily copied. Like this:
Is Taking Hasbro Talent a Win for LeapFrog? (LF) By Blake Bos | More Articles | Save For Later June 11, 2013 | LeapFrog (NYSE: LF ) has just hired Ken Adams as its new SVP of sales, a move that at first glance looks excellent, as Adams served as the VP of sales at Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS ) and was with the company for 28 years. In the following video, Fool consumer-goods analyst Blake Bos tells investors why he likes the move, what his thoughts on LeapFrog stock are on the whole, and how you'll be able to best monitor the success of the company going forward. 3 stocks poised to help you retire richIt's no secret that investors tend to be impatient with the market, but the best investment strategy is to buy shares in solid businesses and keep them for the long term. In the special free report "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich," The Motley Fool shares investment ideas and strategies that could help you build wealth for years to come. Click here to grab your free copy today. | Recommend This Article (0)
Jonathan Harris: A Better Way To Tell Stories Online It has been a real joy to witness our community evolve over the past ten months, from a small gathering of personal friends to the global family of storytellers that Cowbird is today. I built Cowbird because I wanted a beautiful tool that I could use to tell my own stories, and no other tool felt right. I was interested in creating a space on the Web that could be a sanctuary for a deeper, longer-lasting kind of self-expression — a refuge from the clamor, clutter, vitriol, superficiality, and competitiveness that plagues so much of the online world today. Together, I believe we’ve made such a space. Some of you have written to me and called Cowbird, “churchlike,” or “a contemplative, almost sacred environment,” or simply said, “It’s just so human.” I set out to build a tool, but I realize now that I was actually building a community. We launched Cowbird on December 8, 2011. About six months ago, we introduced an experimental feature called “Sprouting”. Onwards to beautiful things! Cowbird
What True Love Has To Do With Great Innovation If there’s one thing we know about great innovations, it’s that they always break from the status quo. The best creative thinking occurs outside of the usual systems at work. The problem is, most of us live and work inside the system. So you have to purposely jam the controls. 1. The long days of summer offer two crucial things: time and freedom. 2. Who’s paying for this date? 3. You need to go make out. 4. When it comes down to it, when you’re in love, you feel like the best version of yourself. What Do You Think? Scott McDowell takes the risk out of hiring your management team.