Khoi Vinh's Blog, page 121

Mac Icon Standard

This font, which was apparently drawn for last month’s 30 Years of Mac celebration, consists of elegant line drawings of every single model of Macintosh ever shipped.

Unfortunately, the font doesn’t work like conventional typefaces. Once installed, you can only access it via Apple’s Font Book utility, where you must copy the specific model you want and paste it elsewhere. It also doesn’t seem like the font has been officially released, as there’s no official web page for it. You can download it here for the time being. Via Cult of Mac.

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This Is Note a Conspiracy Theory

From Kirby Ferguson, the prolific net documentary filmmaker behind the very well-regarded series “,” comes this new series that seeks to understand “the hidden forces that shape our lives.” This new series is “delivered in episodes.” The first one is free, but subsequent episodes are available only to those who pay the US$15 subscription price, though there is an introductory discount available right now. Have a look for yourself.

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Redesign to Come

My post yesterday about Philip Seymour Hoffman looks pretty scrawny on very wide screens. This is a problem that has been getting more acute as monitors get both bigger and smaller; the design of this site, which hasn’t been updated in over eight years, has become more and more anachronistic as technology forges ahead. Luckily, a redesign is on the way. Here’s how that post will look soon on a screen roughly 1,400 pixels wide:

I’ve been working on this major revamp with the help of my friend Allan Cole for a long time, fitting it in between other projects, and it’s finally getting pretty close to actually being done. In fact, it’s at the stage where I would like to invite a small number of users to look around, kick the tires, help me test drive the site, etc. If you’re interested, please drop me a line and I’ll send you a beta invitation. Thanks!

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Remembering The Master

Last year I read Lawrence Wright’s riveting, frightening book, “Going Clear,” which goes deep inside the world of the Church of Scientology. When I finished, I was inspired to re-watch P.T. Anderson’s “The Master,” which was ostensibly based on a Scientology-like cult. In the course of watching, I took these screen captures of the many gorgeous, haunting close-ups of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in the role of Lancaster Dodd.

What a remarkable performance in a truly remarkable film. Thinking back now, I can’t recall a Hoffman performance that didn’t leave a mark. He was truly one of the most gifted actors of our time. Rest in peace, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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First Kidpost Email Sent!

We’ve been busy working on the fundamental building blocks of Kidpost, our upcoming service that bundles up parents’ kid-related social media posts into weekly emails. There’s nothing particularly visual to show for most of that work, but today we hit a sort-of public-facing milestone: our first Kidpost email successfully went out at 9:32a EST this morning:

Obviously, it’s still very rough. It doesn’t yet include the pictures themselves (or any kind of, y’know, design) and, for the time being, only gathers posts from Facebook. One step at a time! If you’re interested, you can find out more and get access to the preview soon at Kidpost.net.

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Interaction Canvases and Ecosystems

Benedict Evans is one of the smartest people currently thinking and writing about what it means to move to a mobile dominated world. His post yesterday, “Interaction Canvases and Ecosystems,” tackles the question of what usage patterns we’ll see on phones in five years. It touches a bit on the emerging concept of card-based metaphors (something he also talked about in this post from last summer), and is nicely in line with what we’re thinking at Wildcard. Read the full post here.

As an aside and a much less intellectually substantial supplement to this conversation, have a look at all the card-based user interfaces I’ve been collecting at Pinterest.

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David Ayer’s World

Google the film writer and director David Ayer and you get the standard results: an IMDb dossier, a Wikipedia page, assorted reviews of his past movies, and various news items about his future releases. None of the links suggest that Ayer is building one of the most vital and distinctive bodies of work going.

The oversight is understandable. His résumé is full of titles that raise eyebrows: the inaugural “The Fast and the Furious,” the film adaptation of “S.W.A.T.,” and a Keanu Reeves actioner that barely made a mark called “Street Kings.”

There is one exception: “Training Day,” from 2001, for which Ayer wrote the script. Largely favorable reviews and an Oscar-winning performance from Denzel Washinigton have made it Ayer’s most prominent credential by far. Even in films where he writes and directs, his movies are usually marketed under the tagline “From the writer of ‘Training Day.’”

Los Angeles Stars As Itself

Nevertheless, almost all of his works evidence a singularly fascinating, uncompromising vision. Just as John Ford returned again and again to the 19th century West, Ayer’s world is contemporary Los Angeles. Not Hollywood and points West, but South Central, Compton, the Rampart district — the unglamorous side of the sprawling city, where police and gangs collide, commingle and kill one another. His films are deep dives into a domestic war zone that goes largely ignored.

Few other filmmakers are capable of immersing audiences as deeply into the treacherous bureaucracy of the L.A.P.D., or as authentically into the brutal realities of gang life. If you’ve ever seen the eye-opening documentary “Bastards of the Party,” which investigates the history of L.A.’s dominant gangs and, in doing so, humanizes the landscape, Ayer’s world will look and feel fully convincing, even accounting for the artistic license he invokes in the name of drama. In fact, the central figure of “Bastards” is former gang-member turned filmmaker Cle Sloan, who has appeared in a number of Ayer’s films in small roles.

Where to start with Ayer’s work? For those who haven’t seen it, “Training Day” is his most accessible movie. For those who have, “Harsh Times,” which was his directorial debut (and which was Christian Bale’s first role after “Batman Begins”) shows the full, unfiltered power of Ayer’s vision. “End of Watch” which I wrote about last August is almost literally a ride along-style tour of Ayer’s world. “Dark Blue,” which was almost completely missed when it debuted twelve years ago, is flawed but thoroughly captivating. And even “Street Kings,” which is not Keanu Reeves’s best work, is nevertheless well worth watching, and what convinced me that even the least coherent of Ayer’s work is never less than fascinating.

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Campaign Monitor’s Top 100 Email Campaigns of 2013

This e-book overview of the best of last year’s email marketing campaign designs is illuminating; email is not a platform known for being particularly design-friendly, yet there is clearly some nice work being done in this space. You also have to commend companies like Campaign Monitor (and their competitor, Mailchimp as well) for extensively advocating for good design. Get the e-book here.

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Le Potenzialità Della Musica In Streaming

In December I wrote a piece on Medium called “What Streaming Music Can Be,” rounding up some of my thoughts on the missing potential in today’s streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio. That piece achieved a modest level of popularity, and was well circulated. Now an Italian publication, Internazionale, has published a translation: “Le Potenzialità Della Musica In Streaming.” Posted for posterity.

Update: Pierre Choffé also translated the article into French: L’avenir du streaming. He did this last month but I missed it. Thanks, Pierre!

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Interview with Me on Designer Daddy

My friend Brent Almond, whom I worked with many, many years ago, runs a site called Designer Daddy, which is all about life as a father for designers. Today he posted this interview with me on that very subject. I got a kick out of this part where Brent declares:

“I can’t think of a designer whose style (and personality) is more different than mine.”

Still, we get along, practically like ebony and ivory. The interview was conducted over email last year, partly while I was working at Etsy for a brief time, but there is a bit in there towards the end about my new project, Kidpost, which is conveniently relevant to Brent’s audience. Read the interview here.

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