Archives

Reported in the New Yorker

Two notable entertainments at The New Yorker: First, from this week’s ‘Talk of the Town,’ Herb Allen’s “Brooklyn Tobacco Party,” a recounting of a citizens’ group trying to fight society’s anti-smoking trends, is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in a magazine.On a more serious note, an article in last week’s issue called “The Talent Myth” debunks the belief of American businesses that star employees should be prioritized at all costs — and how Enron was a notable practitioner of this fallacy. More than another instance of bashing everyone’s favorite corporate kicking boys, author Malcolm Gladwell takes a closer look at what motivates groups of people within business organizations, and offers the alternative of emphasizing soundly-realized operational frameworks.

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Not Just Pixels Anymore

Aqua IconsThe days when the design of software icons revolved around whatever aesthetics that designers could squeeze out of a single pixel are rapidly receding. The icons to be found in Mac OS X, and to a lesser extent in Windows XP, are like little digital paintings, and it takes a different kind of savvy to design them. Pixeljerk is a great practitioner of this new craft, and he had a terrific tutorial up there but it’s now gone. There’s also some decent help at Robouk Designs.

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Design Amuck

StyleboostThis heat has me thrown for a loop. All I want to do is chill out with a glass of lemonade and a stack of DVDs, which is my excuse for not posting for the past few days. Anyhow, here’s some more design stuff: Styleboost has relaunched and their cover image is really great. Reservocation has a new issue out; their layouts are still quite decent, though, like lots of other amateur journalists, they could stand to brush up on their interviewing technique. And finally, design-clique It-boys WeWorkForThem have launched their souvenir division, YouWorkForThem.com, where you can buy tees, fonts and EPS art.

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Family Valueless

Sesame Street intends to add an HIV-positive puppet character to its South African broadcast, in an attempt to help spread understanding in this AIDS-ravaged country. Like a pack of ignorant, reactionary panderers, five Republicans from the House Commerce Committee have threatened to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the face of this small-scale humanitarian gesture — I guess because it offends their narrow-minded and stereotypical view of AIDS relief of any kind as an endorsement of homosexuality. These people are fanatical right-wingers and are effectively working to undermine basic human compassion. Though the Republicans have apparently been placated, it’s discouraging the way that their brand of reckless idiocy can gain attention — and that the world doesn’t bristle with disgust at it. Those who are offended should write polite but strongly-worded letters of protest to your Congressperson or directly to Committe Chairman Rep. W.J. Tauzin (R-LA).

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Comp Shoot Comp

For five days I’ve been struggling with some look and feel comps for a new Web site that Behavior is working on. This is one of the toughest assignments I’ve had in a while — it’s taken me six full-fledged comps to get to a state where I have three that I like. Sometimes, I guess, it’s necessary to work through a lot of bad work before getting to a satisfactory design.

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Represent

Rep. James TraficantWow, Rep. James Traficant is a total loon. I caught his freak-show testimony before the House ethics committee on C-SPAN today — an insane combination of bizarre weeping willow hairstyle, defiantly tacky skinny tie and televangelist’s oratory. It reminded me of some kind of governmental hijinks from the 19th century, a bizarre tale of hucksterism and megalomania you’d only read about in The New Yorker. Only a thousand times funnier.

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