Cameron Moll's Blog, page 17

Web Typography for the Lonely

Web Typography for the Lonely:

"…aims to excite designers about the possibilities of cutting-edge web standards and javascript through beautiful and inspiring typographic explorations." Complete with downloadable code, and cleverly written by Christopher Clark. From the Coolinate page:

I am very aware that Coolinate is a dumb name for anything ever. Sadly, my other ideas— Line-shadowify, Manystuffify, and Bloginate — all seemed dumber. There weren't many options really. Putting some lines under text isn't an activity that conjures epic war-hero-style action verbs. If you are that smug person who has already come up with better names, you can find a contact link in the site map. Otherwise, quit whining.

/via Quipsologies

Live The Language: Paris

Live The Language: Paris:

Je t'aime le type in this lovely video (part of a series).

A Resilient Team Soothes a Nation

A Resilient Team Soothes a Nation:

I watched every minute of the thrilling 1999 Women's World Cup Final. Yesterday's match, in which the U.S. lost to Japan on penalty kicks, was every bit as thrilling and more. Kudos to Japan, and really to an entire country still recovering from immense devastation.

"In a Word: PERSIST."

This morning I tweeted about a lack of inspiration and having to trudge through it. In response, @brainhofj tweeted about the following:

This handwritten letter is by Austin Madison, Pixar animator of Rex, the green dinosaur in the Toy Story series (among other characters he's designed). Madison's letter is a submission to the Animators Letters Project, and it so eloquently described what I was attempting to say in 140 characters.

Here's page one:

I, like many of you artists out there, constantly shift between two states. The first (and far more preferable of the two) is white-hot, "in the zone" seat-of-the-pants, firing on all cylinders creative mode. This is when you lay your pen down and the ideas pour out like wine from a royal chalice! This happens about 3% of the time.

The other 97% of the time I am in the frustrated, struggling, office-corner-full-of-crumpled-up-paper mode. The important thing is to slog diligently through this quagmire of discouragement and despair. Put on some audio commentary and listen to the stories of professionals who have been making films for decades going through the same slings and arrows of outrageous production problems.

In a word: PERSIST.

Page two continues with canny and inspirational advice for those of us — actually all of us — trudging through the creative blocks that fill most of our days. At the end of today's workday, I'm happy to report that I persisted, knocked out lots of mediocre stuff, and then cranked out a couple above-average ideas towards the end.

Thanks, Austin.

WIM•BLE•DON

WIM•BLE•DON:

The final match of the 122nd Wimbledon between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as an infographic. First question that comes to mind when I see stuff like this: How do they find time for it? Second question: Why is my mind not this brilliant and creative?

/via @scottharrison

Gojee: An Enjoyable Recipe Experience

Gojee: An Enjoyable Recipe Experience:

"Tell us what you're craving and what you have in your kitchen and we'll spoon feed your eyes something dreamy." Simple concept. Nice execution of the user experience.

Tattly: Designy Temporary Tattoos

Tattly: Designy Temporary Tattoos:

Now available for purchase, $5 each. Concept by swissmiss, and designs by Jessi Arrington, Frank Chimero, Jason Santa Maria, and others.

Newseum: Front Pages of the Atlantis Launch

Newseum: Front Pages of the Atlantis Launch:

Newseum documents the STS-135 Atlantis Shuttle launch as featured on the front pages of newspapers around the world. The Huntsville Times, featured above, wins hands down.

Beans and Noses

Beans and Noses:

Jared Spool, realizing that advice from an old friend about not being able to stop people from sticking beans up their nose is a rule to live by:

The only thing I can do in a beans-and-noses situation is wait. Wait until the bean is in its final resting place. Then, with a calmness only seen in yoga instructors, I can turn the nose owner and ask, 'So, how is that working for you? Did it do everything you'd hoped?'

Of course, if they answer they enjoyed it and it was wonderful, then they are not someone I can relate to or help in any way.

However, if sticking a bean deep into their nostril doesn't meet the very high expectations they'd had, I can now start talking alternative approaches to reaching those expectations.

On Competing with Circles

On Competing with Circles:

Dhanji R. Prasanna, former Google+ engineer:

Now, I'm not saying that Circles is the one killer feature to bring down facebook — not at all. What I am saying, however, is that [Google+ and facebook] are not playing on an even field. Like Microsoft and online Office, it is incredibly difficult for facebook to make fundamental changes to their product suite to answer competitive threats. It is for this reason I feel that Google+ has a genuine shot at dethroning facebook.

Read the full article for an interesting look at the development of the Circles concept and Facebook's "unwillingness" (Dhanji's words) to change substantially enough to combat it.

/via Hacker News