Donovan Beery: Web Tips

Why do I keep forgetting that I have a digital camera and a scanner? After finding another tutorial last week on how to emulate something in Photoshop, I asked myself, wouldn’t it be more effective to just scan that in? I’ve been as guilty as the next person at it, but it’s never a bad idea to add some life and energy to your projects by adding in those hand drawn elements (even on a website). Why try to make a page tear or polaroid photo border on your computer when it’s more authentic to just scan one in and use it? I tell myself that next time I will try to listen to my own advice on this one.

Drew Davies: Adobe Space Monkey

I know it’s a little off-topic, but this month I made a find that certainly relates to most of us as designers. After doing some housekeeping on a secondary machine, I needed to do some photo retouching, and launched what I thought was Photoshop. Turns out, something I’d deleted related to Photoshop, and sent it into lockout mode. However, turning what should have been a frustrating experience into a true find was the splash screen for what launched in Photoshop’s place: Adobe Space Monkey. The team at Adobe is known for hiding Easter eggs in their software, but this one was so odd and unexpected that I had to grab a screen capture to share with everyone. Sure, others have found this egg before, but I thought as designers, we’d all appreciate it a little more than the average user. Click here to see the full splash screen in all its glory.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

I was blown away this week when I learned about Mike Golembewski who is building cameras out of flatbed scanners. Since the scanner camera records the image as it moves across the bed, things that are moving in the pictures appear warped and blurred in the photos. In another stroke of genius, mike used the scanner camera as a timelapse camera. Check out the resulting movies that are beautiful, surreal, and haunting. Am I going to build one? Let me just say, I have already destroyed one scanner, and I am not discouraged…

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

Derek Powazek has posted some short and sweet guidelines for designing a successful home page.

1. Answer the question, “What is this place?”
2. Don’t get in the repeat visitor’s way
3. Show what’s new
4. Provide consistent, reliable global navigation

Numbers 1 and 4 we have heard over and over again, but 2 and 3 are relatively new, yet internet users have come to expect these things from the websites they visit.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

http://www.malia.co.uk/wildrose/index1.asp

This website is so hard to read, I won’t even try. But you totally should, because cyan text on flower-print wallpaper is a great way to say “Good Morning!” to yourself. Or “Good Afternoon!”, or even “Good Evening!”, just depends on when you read this and subsequently go visit this site. One thing is for sure, you’ll have a headache. So on second thought, maybe don’t visit this site. Or do. Your call. Just don’t blame me when your head hurts later.

You bet.