Donovan Beery: Web Tips

When you get one of those projects you always complain about – the one that you have ‘no creative say’ in, and it’s just ‘production’ work, try something new. I’m not talking about radical changes – simply take the time to hone your craft by focusing on the details you’ve been meaning to work on. I find these are the best times to work on cascading style sheet tags you haven’t played with yet, new javascript tricks, or any typography details that you just haven’t gotten around to perfecting yet. The idea isn’t always to wow the client with these details, but using them as a learning tool for yourself can make the mundane projects more fun, and sometimes even make you look forward to them.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

Very cool news recently in the blurring of lines between pop culture, music, and the various disciplines of design. The Design Museum [London, England] has awarded its Designer of the Year award to Jamie Hewlett, self-titled Creative Director of the band Gorillaz. The UK’s most prestigious design prize, Designer of the Year is awarded annually to the UK designer or design team who made the biggest contribution to design in the preceding year. (It also comes with a £25,000 [approx. US$40K] prize.)

I love this choice because of its “crossover” nature, which I think shows an understanding by the Design Museum that design doesn’t need to fit into a pre-designated category to be very, very effective. Congratulations to Jamie on a well-deserved award. Now can you come over to the States and help us do a little more publicly to recognize good design on this side of the pond?

Adrian Hanft - Alternative Photography

One of the coolest features of Flickr is that it gives you the ability to easily keep up with your groups and friends via RSS feeds. Look for the little orange RSS icon on the Flickr pages and use the link to subscribe to that page’s feed in your RSS program of choice. It is an easy way to follow an interesting conversation, keep track of new photos by your contacts and to be aware of what is going on in your favorite group photo pool.

Stephanie Murg - Read This

Here, take this globe. Now point to the world’s hottest art capital. Did you point to Berlin? Good for you. Berlin’s art scene is booming. Chalk it up to that always potent interplay of affordable rents, an unpredictable economy, ample free time, and abundant space. In the past decade, nearly 30 new or renovated art museums have opened in the city, which is awash in galleries and artists, both homegrown and imported. But you don’t need to stop at the Hamburger Bahnhof to take in the Berlin art scene, just read the writing on the walls. Literally. Christoph Mangler saves you the Lufthansa roundtrip with City Language Berlin, released on Tuesday by Prestel Publishing.

Mangler spent almost three years assembling the book’s over 250 street images—from messages scrawled on walls to curiously universal icons meticulously etched on every possible surface—that reveal the creativity (sometimes odd, sometimes ugly, sometimes jaw-droppingly beautiful) that is constantly reconfiguring Berlin. In the words of Klaus Biesenbach, founder of Berlin’s Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art and chief curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, “Berlin is always in a constant state of beginning and reinvention.”

Tom Nemitz - Awesomely Bad Websites

EugeneMirman.com

There is sound with this one, so watch out. And watch your ears…because while the site design is actually pretty good, this proves there’s more than one way to be Awesomely Bad. Its a crooning sepia-tone child, for biscuits sake!

And the best part, well, there really is no best part, but the most interesting part is that he’s not some dubious ruffian without the chops…just watch him sink his teeth into a ditty from Twisted Sister! Watch him get acidic with Iron Butterfly! Hear and believe as he croons through a majestic Jethro Tull Medley! See him one-up himself with a Who Medley! Roil in horror as he first butchers Cyndi Lauper, then Madonna, and single-handedly kill the 80s in the process! You bet!