Henry Sene Yee reveals the creative process he went through to arrive at an appropriate cover image for this account of the 1999 shooting tragedy in Littleton, Colorado. Along the way, he includes and discusses the rejected covers.

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A surprisingly detailed post about every child’s favorite coloring tools, including — somewhat insanely — hexadecimal and RGB values for each color. Because you needed that. Via Kottke.org.

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These camouflaged stickers were placed on sidewalks so that they would stick to the soles of unsuspecting pedestrians’ shoes. The randomness and ease with which passersby picked up the stickers simulates an accidental tripping of a landmine — without the destructiveness, obviously. The copywriting could be a little gentler, but overall it’s a smart idea. Via Capn Design.

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Animated primer on how the credit markets blew up by Jonathan Jarvis. “This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.”

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Actually I find the name a little snotty, because some of the paintings are really kind of wonderful.

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If you’re considering adopting a dog anytime in the foreseeable future, you might consider helping to counteract a terrible trend at animal shelters: large dogs with black coats, when given up for adoption, are euthanized at a much higher rate than smaller or fairer-coated dogs, essentially because the public have an irrational fear of them.

“‘Please don’t overlook our black dogs,’ rescue groups pleaded on their home pages above pictures of Rottweilers, Chows and Labs sporting bright bandannas. One shelter’s website just came right out with the grim truth: ‘The general public is not aware of how doomed black dogs are when they are brought to a pound.’…

“Most black dogs have to rely on shelter staff and volunteers to steer potential adopters their way. And indeed, many shelters take extra steps to make black dogs more adoptable, according to Kate Pullen, director of animal sheltering issues at the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C. Teaching the dogs tricks, putting placards on kennels highlighting the dog’s personality (‘I may just be a black dog, but I know how to balance a biscuit on my nose.’), making sure multiple black dogs aren’t kenneled next to one other — anything to catch the eye and imagination of potential adopters.

“‘I’ve had to turn away many black dogs because I can’t fill the place up with them,’ says Jill Wimmer, shelter manager at PAWS Atlanta, that city’s oldest and largest no-kill shelter.’ And every one I turned away had a great temperament.”

Sorry, just a little bit of off-topic editorializing there.

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Noted designer Cameron Moll examines the would-be alternative to the sIFR Web typography technique and reports on its relative merits. “I personally see Cufón as a good interim step between sIFR and @font-face.” However, Moll notes some nontrivial drawbacks, including Cufón’s inability to allow text selection and the lack of a hover state.

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