David Lidsky's Blog, page 4799

Pentagram's Paula Scher Designs the Beige Out of Middle School, Conquers Fear of Color

The project was conducted in the Achievement First Endeavor Middle School, a charter school in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Paula Scher and the rest of the Pentagram team (one of our 10 Most Innovative Design Firms), already experienced with public places thanks to projects like these library murals, tackled the typically beige world of lockers, tile, and brick, and turned it into something bright and bold. The transformation is actually relatively simple--no major construction was undertaken...

British Teenager Fired From Job Via Facebook, After Cookie-Related Ineptitude

Things you need to know before we get started: in England, cookies are called biscuits. Also in England, the word "cookies" does not also mean cookies, because this story revolves around a cafe called Cookies that does not sell cookies. This may all sound like a fun bit of wordplay leading up to a punchline, but it's not--that's just how they roll in England. It's a mysterious island nation, I know.

As the Daily Mail reports, Chelsea Taylor, a 16-year-old clerk at the Cookies Cafe in Leigh...

Designer Paula Scher Explains How to Take the Beige Out of Middle School: Don't Be Afraid of Color

The project was conducted in the Achievement First Endeavor Middle School, a charter school in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Paula Scher and the rest of the Pentagram team (one of our 10 Most Innovative Design Firms), already experienced with public places thanks to projects like these library murals, tackled the typically beige world of lockers, tile, and brick, and turned it into something bright and bold. The transformation is actually relatively simple--no major construction was undertaken...

GameCrush: The Gamer's Version of Phone Sex Is Somehow Sadder Than Regular Phone Sex

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Here's how pathetic GameCrush is: it modeled its service after the behavior of a desperate man trying to get a girl's attention at a bar by buying her an eight-dollar drink. But in reality, it's more of a gamer's phone sex line, dressed in Ed Hardy.

GameCrush charges a whopping $8.25 per 6-10 minutes of chat time with a female "gamer" (or, more likely, female opportunist with a high tolerance for sweaty nerditude) who are called, no lie, "PlayDates." These PlayDates (try to control the...

Eco-Friendly Fashions Let You Wear and Care

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Photograph by Teru Onishi

Sustainable fashion has come a long way from the hemp sack. We check out what's on offer from eco-minded, worker-friendly designers and outfitters.

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1. Aksel Paris

Le Azure shirt, $89

www.akselparis.com

This Turkish organic-cotton shirt is made in a small Istanbul atelier where the eco-minded staff has cut its water use by 20% in four years.

2. Mociun

Skinny tie, $98

www.mociun.com

This tie -- made of the sustainable wood-pulp-based cloth Tencel -- is printed...

HTC Evo 4G: America's First 4G Phone Is Also the New Android Champ

When HTC released the HD2, the hardware geeks drooled. To them, it was the best phone on the market, period: no other phone had a huge and crystal-clear 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen, a crazy-thin body, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and a whopping 448MB of RAM. That's hardware that'd embarrass a top-of-the-line desktop computer a decade ago. But it was flawed, held back by the oppressively awful Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5, which very shortly after was mercilessly killed by its creator. The...

Ford Saves One Million Dollars...By Shutting Off Computers

Talk about low-hanging fruit. Ford estimates that it will save $1.2 million and reduce its carbon footprint by 16,000 to 25,000 metric tons annually--just by shutting off computers when they aren't in use. The secret to getting employees to shut down is a program called PC Power Management that centrally controls laptops and desktops to power down overnight and on weekends. At the same time, the program makes sure that computers connected to the Ford Intranet are able to receive software...

Mike Perry Shares the Making of an Art Show

Illustrator Mike Perry prides himself on his DIY ethos; Hand Job is his cheekily-named book that's a collection of hand-drawn type. For Perry's new show Lost in the Discovery of What Shapes the Mind, which opens Friday at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, he took his handmade aesthetic one step further, creating a behind-the-scenes blog documenting the prep work. True to the exhibition's name, Perry's process photos are every bit as visually-intriguing as we expect the show to be.

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Designing a Movement: Seven Principles for Sustainable Action

The sustainability conversation has evolved radically since I started the Designers Accord two and a half years ago. At that time, major magazines like Time and Vanity Fair were declaring "eco-wars," reveling in "eco-nakedness," and celebrating Indiana Jones-Athena hybrid "eco-pin-ups."

Industry conversations were punctuated with comments around recycling and material selection. Questions like "What's your end-of-life scenario?" became trendy corporate pick-up lines, provoking our clients...

Who's Cashing In on Health-Care Reform?

If the health-care bill signed into law by President Obama today delivers on its promises, it's likely to down as the first ripple in a tidal wave of health-care information-technology innovation.

It buoys last year's economic stimulus act, which slotted almost $20 billion to expanding health information technology (HIT). The new bill puts an even greater emphasis on electronic medical records and payment systems, for example, as the keys to successful health care reform.

And while the...