Betabeat Interviews Me About iPad Magazine Apps

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1 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Earlier this week The New York Observer’s Betabeat ran a cover story on the challenges that Condé Nast has faced with its app strategy. I’ve been a longtime critic of the approach Condé Nast has pursued (I outlined most of these thoughts in this blog post from last year), so I was interviewed as part of the reporter’s research. There are a few choice quotes from me in the final article, which you can read here.

Today, the writer, Nitasha Tiku, published a second piece which is basically a transcript of the interview she conducted with me. It’s a more complete rendering of our chat and my thoughts, and so I thought it may interest some of you out there. Read the interview here.

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FontBook for iPad

Ratings

3 of 5 stars
What’s this?

FontShop have just released an iPad version of their iconic “FontBook” resource. Like its print progenitor, which was 1,500 pages long and massive, this app is a 524MB download. But worth it.

FontBook

The most amazing part is that it costs a ridiculously affordable US$5.99 in the App Store. Before you buy you can find out more here.

(Update: I just came across a terrific write-up for the FontBook app from Jens Tenhaeff. Read it here.)

Also worth noting: four years ago, in this blog post, I interviewed typographer and well-known type expert Stephen Coles about his work on the last major revision of the print edition.

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The End of Client Services

Last week, I marked a year since my departure from The New York Times by starting to talk a little bit about what I’ve been doing (see this blog post). Today, I’m going to talk a bit about why I decided to jump into a startup, one in which we’re building a product of our own, rather than starting another design consulting business.

Some longtime readers will remember that about ten years ago I co-founded a design studio of my own. In fact, until I went ‘in-house’ at the Times, I had spent the entirety of my career in the design services industry, working with all sorts of clients doing all sorts of projects, and generally enjoying the variety of challenges and the exposure to many different kinds of businesses. But in the long stretch of months leading up to the day I resigned my position at the Times, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t return to that kind of work.

There were lots of reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that I think the design industry has undergone a significant and meaningful change, one that opens up opportunities that are not to be missed.

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Suddenly, One Year Later

Tomorrow is July 16th and it’ll be a year to the day since I left my job at The New York Times. (More about why I left in this blog post.) I can hardly believe it.

Lots of people ask what I’ve been up to in that time. I admit I’ve been rather cagey about the specifics, but the outlines are more or less public knowledge. I spent the first several months finishing my book, “Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design.” I also picked up a few freelance and part-time design consulting gigs, generating some transitional income while also spending a lot of time with my family.

What’s less well known is that I cleared away most of that freelance activity at the end of January, when I hunkered down to focus solely on a brand new venture that I started thinking about almost immediately after my tenure ended at The Times.

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