taking a creative break right now

For all book nerds, please register. I did.

Good article found on the Wall Street Journal regarding How To sites. eHow didn’t come on top due to popup ads but the writer did like the color palette:

EHow.com uses its database of articles to encourage people to watch videos, when they’re relevant. This site uses calm, pastel colors to give a relaxed feeling — especially compared with WonderHowTo, where banner ads surround the page.

I’m pretty happy with the overall color scheme myself.

Show the world you know your type. Helvetica Neue explained for the layman.

In weights descending from Ultra Black 95 to Ultra Light 25, Max Miedinger’s redesign of his own 1957 classic has never been so fashionable.

Eternal Love by dialog05:

Passen wir zueinander? sind wir wirklich voll kompatibel? wie lange wird es halten? ein geben und nehmen - synchronize!

Are we suited to one another? are we really compatible? how long will it last? it’s all about give and take – synchronize!

The designers behind Los Angeles-based Solid Gold Rags are sparing us the search for the perfectly worn-in t-shirt with a new line of beautifully tattered tees. Screen-prints of pop-culture icons—French singers and muses Françoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg front two of the collection’s pieces—the almost criminally soft shirts. Co-founders Perry Shimon, and Oliver Kupperhe seek to create quietly personal, everyday pieces that celebrate the individuals they admire.

Sam Flores is a designer that has always been involved in the street cultures of skateboarding and graffiti writing.  I’m really digging his bags are from Upper Playground and you can get them here.

Five years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published, it’s hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn’t read Steve Krug’s “instant classic” on Web usability, but people are still discovering it every day.  In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters in the same style as the original: wry and entertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for novice and veteran alike.  Don’t be surprised if it completely changes the way you think about Web design.

Three New Chapters!

• Usability as common courtesy — Why people really leave Web sites
• Web Accessibility, CSS, and you — Making sites usable and accessible
• Help! My boss wants me to ______. — Surviving executive design whims

Definitely worth reading the second time around.

My latest obsession is a lovely web site dedicated to the joy of origami - concepts, products and inspiration.

Chocolate-pencils is a collaboration with patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu, the mastermind behind popular dessert shops like Mont St. Claire and Le Chocolat de H. Tsujiguchi created a new dessert based on his impression of nendo after conversations with us, and we designed new tableware for them. We wanted our plates to show off the beauty of meals and desserts like a painting on a canvas. Based on this idea, our “chocolate pencils” come in a number of cocoa blends that vary in intensity, and chocophiles can use the special “pencil sharpener” that comes with our plate to grate chocolate onto their dessert. Pencil filings are usually the unwanted remains of sharpening a pencil, but in this case, they’re the star!

Do they melt in your hands?

Designed with Apple products.