Graphic design studio Dowling Duncan created this attractive entry to The Dollar Redesign Project which proposes a Modernist take on U.S. currency. Some nice usability considerations have been factored into these designs: the bills are varied in size, with the larger denominations being longer; and the designs are oriented vertically. “When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally. You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically.”

Notwithstanding the fact that American popular taste has moved so far away from the International Style for design of government collateral that these proposals haven’t a prayer of being implemented in the real world, they’re nice works nevertheless.

Illustration history blog Today’s Inspiration is in the middle of a few posts highlighting the powerhouse 20th Century illustrator Bob Peak, whose distinct style reconciled mid-century concepts of modernism and expressionism into powerful commercial visuals.

A friend of mine, comedian and writer Todd Levin, has an article in the most recent issue of G.Q. about his experiences writing for, first, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and then, after moving to Los Angeles, O’Brien’s brief tenure on “The Tonight Show” from its launch to its very public demise. It’s a fascinating and personal peek behind the scenes at one of the more bizarre incidents in television history — and very well written, to boot, which you can tell from this excellent kicker:

“If you’ve ever seen a criminal standing before a firing squad and felt jealous of all the attention he was receiving, then you would have loved writing for Conan O’Brien.”

And then this bit from when it became evident that the network had decided to bring Jay Leno back to late night:

“[Conan] entered the studio unceremoniously, dressed in a leather jacket and baseball hat — like someone getting ready to leave — then slumped into the guest couch and fixed his gaze on the far wall as he addressed us, never really making eye contact. It was a sight that shook your faith a little, like seeing your dad on crutches.”

Read the full essay here. By the way, Todd has also just co-written a book called “Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk,” which he describes as “a parody of all those cringe-inducing sex manuals our parents had lying around, and featuring charcoal illustrations of hairy hippies getting to third base.” Mmm.

Moviegoers who saw Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” in theaters will surely remember the studio’s delightful animated short “Day & Night,” a typically brilliant lead-in to the feature that has now been adapted into a hardbound children’s book (already available for sale on Amazon.)

To my mind, this is the kind of thing that separates Pixar apart from all other film studios, whether producing animated or live action fare: they respect the stories and characters they create enough to find appropriate expressions for them in other media even when, as is the case here, there’s probably not a lot of money to be made. Compared to the large-scale public appetite for Buzz Lightyear tie-in products, there were probably very few who were clamoring to see the “Day & Night” characters get their own book, yet Pixar went to the trouble of making it happen anyway.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of my favorite authors and I make no apologies for being yet another of his countless fans who considers “The Great Gatsby” to be my favorite book of all time. In fact, I own, in some form or another, most of Fitzgerald’s works, but these new editions from Penguin Classics are so aesthetically striking — and smart in their execution — that I would seriously consider buying them again. In fact, the new packaging for “Gatsby,” is in my mind such an improvement over the original, iconic yet highly imperfect cover illustration that I would gladly own it just so I don’t have to look at that old one anymore.

On the thirtieth anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back” — the high point in the trilogy — producer Gary Kurtz talks to The Los Angeles Times about his participation in the films. Kurtz was the producer for the first two installments and parted ways with creator George Lucas on the third over differences on its narrative direction.

“I could see where things were headed… The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.”

That explains everything, including the sense of tedium that hung over large swaths of “Return of the Jedi” and the miserable pall that hovered over all three of the franchise’s miserable, pathetic prequels.

Illustrator Adam Sidwell is creating a new illustrated portrait of a (usually) fictional bad guy once a week. Some of my favorites include Tyler Durden and Locke from “Lost”. He’s also selling limited edition prints of the illustrations.

A mathematician from Kent State University, an engineer at Google, a math teacher from Darmstadt, Germany, and a programmer from Palo Alto, California arrive at some definitive conclusions regarding the thirty-six year old Rubik’s Cube puzzle:

“With about 35 CPU-years of idle computer time donated by Google, a team of researchers has essentially solved every position of the Rubik’s Cube, and shown that no position requires more than twenty moves… There are many different algorithms, varying in complexity and number of moves required, but those that can be memorized by a mortal typically require more than forty moves. One may suppose God would use a much more efficient algorithm, one that always uses the shortest sequence of moves; this is known as God’s Algorithm. The number of moves this algorithm would take in the worst case is called God’s Number. At long last, God’s Number has been shown to be 20.”

A great blog from artist Cole Pierce, designer and Twitter pal o’ mine Able Parris, and my friend and former design colleague at The New York Times Jeremy Zilar that collects recordings of “sound from the field.” The Chicago Reader recently voted it “best amateur music blog” and describes it this way:

“That means several posts a day that range from performances of music by little-known contemporary composers to video of oddball circuit-bent instruments and elaborate mechanical ensembles that play themselves, along with the occasional dude-and-guitar clip or actual music video. The blog is ecumenical in its tastes, though it leans a little toward the electroacoustic and ambient — and there are absolutely no reposts of clubby remixes of popular indie bands.”

It’s a nice little project, plus it uses Robbie Manson’s nicely done Vignelli theme for Tumblr. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony that, just a day after I posted about Tumblr’s propensity for shallow identity that I’m citing two instances where that’s not the case.) Read the Chicago Reader write-up here or visit Field Mic here.

A superficial but well-executed student project that plays with typography, architecture and vantage point. I like it.