A small but excellent selection of covers from “the definitive music and culture publication in New York City in the early 1980s.” I’d never heard of it before, but then in the Eighties New York was just an idea and not a real place for me yet. These covers evoke that dreamland of my youth though: gritty, plausibly if not authentically punk, confrontational and exclusive (who the hell were Human Switchboard? Oh, that’s who).

“A painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone applications…my goal is for this site to showcase new and emerging talent, current talent and represent the best of the best applications for the iPhone for design-minded folk.”

As the sheer volume of available iPhone apps grows beyond crazy huge into the stratospherically absurd realm, I think we’ll see more and more third-party attempts to make sense of the volume, both through hand-picked methods like this one and other, more automated means.

One of those heartwarming human interest stories that’s completely invulnerable to cynicism.

“In 1998, aged just 14, aspiring young cartoonist Amir Avni decided to get in touch with the creator of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi. Being a hardcore fan of Kricfalusi’s work, Amir sent him an introductory letter along with a few cartoons he’d drawn, some of which contained relatively unknown characters of John’s. To call Kricfalusi’s response ‘generous’ would be an understatement…”

The letter itself, hand-written and partly hand-drawn, practically hums with warmth; see it in its entirety here. Also, if you’re not reading Kricfalusi’s blog — even if you’re nothing more than a casual admirer of cartoon animation — then you’re denying yourself regular insights into the mind of true artist.

An entertaining tour of two New Yorkers’ obsession with a little-noticed relic of the mid-Twentieth Century located Queens. “The two Candela Structures — plus a third one that’s now gone — were built as exhibit spaces for the 1964 World’s Fair… The biggest mystery, though, is why these two amazing structures have languished in obscurity for so long. We hope this exhibit will give them the attention they deserve, and that it will prompt someone — maybe you — to help us fill in the missing chapters of their story.” What’s so great about this story is their architectural inquisitiveness; as our world becomes increasingly virtual, it’s refreshing to remember there are fascinating questions left to answer about the real world.

Designer Mike Rundle’s extraordinarily helpful overview of how he creates U.I. elements that evoke real-world materials. He even pulls back the curtain on his own technique by including a downloadable sample Photoshop file, letting readers pull apart a typical construction for buttons.

An appreciation of the legendary Milan-based graphic designer Bob Noorda, a Modernist legend and co-founding partner (with Massimo Vignelli) of Unimark International. Noorda passed away just over a week ago, on 11 Jan 2010, though it’s still tough to find an English-language obituary online. This write-up over at the excellent new mid-century Modern-focused design archive Display is not quite an obituary, but for the uninitiated it makes for a useful introduction to Noorda’s career.

Seoul, Korea studio UnPlug Design came up with this near-genius idea for providing makeshift soccer balls (okay, footballs) to third world children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them. A wave-like pattern is printed (or perhaps perforated?) on the boxes in which material aid to these countries is often shipped; once the box is empty of its contents, children and aid workers can follow the patterns to break down the cardboard and assemble the ball. More background and pictures here.

An engaging and thoughtful question-and-answer session with the renowned Dutch design studio. Cornell asks for their opinion on a blog post I wrote last April called “Dear Designers, You Suck” in which I addressed the state of criticism in design today — and Experimental Jetset’s response is so different from my perspective and so interesting:

“We’re much more interested graphic design as criticism: the idea that a piece of graphic design is a manifestation of a certain way of thinking, a certain way of ordering the world, and that, by functioning in that way, that piece of graphic design is effectively critiquing the dominant way of thinking, the existing way of ordering the world.”

Read the entire interview here. While you’re at it, marvel at the rest of Cornell’s site to get a sense of why I’m so intensely envious of him: a young, talented, prolific designer with the authorial skills and time to publish regularly on his terrific blog. If only.

Update: Embarrassingly, I’ve gotten Alex mixed up with his employer, Scott Hansen. Sloppy mistake, sorry.

An appraisal of the new transit system map for the Bay Area. “Unlike the notorious 1972 Massimo Vignelli redesign of the New York City subway map, the new BART map didn’t make much of a splash in graphic design circles.”

As the semi-famous default theme for WordPress faces retirement later this year, The Huffington Post takes a look at how it came to be. It’s nice to see its designer, Michael Heilemann, get the credit, but the writer may go a little too far in playing up its importance:

“When Heilemann came to blogging, the Internet was studded with posts that were essentially diary entries, blocks of text with the occasional awkwardly situated photograph. The template he came up with was entirely different — at once elegant and open to innovation. Since its debut, Kubrick has helped change the face of cyberspace…”

A twenty-four point manifesto for independent video game designers and developers. While some points may come across as bromides, the whole thing is written with enough conviction to be a compelling read — and while aimed at one particular kind of designer, it’s applicable to designers of all kinds.

For a kick, also see this contrarian comment posted by one reader. Excerpt: “‘Fun’ is a word with a lot of bad connotations for me.” That’s what you call a hater.

Very illuminating and wide-ranging look at differences in mobile phone usage as a function of region, economics and history.