Khoi Vinh's Blog, page 74

Job Opening Spotlight on Toca Boca

Employers ask me regularly if I know of any great designers they can hire. Usually, I suggest that they list their open position over at the Authentic Jobs board, where I’m a member, and then I tweet out the link a few times and mention it to people I know who might be a good…

The Thesis Book Project

This new project from Design Observer, in collaboration with on-demand publishing platform Blurb, seeks to highlight the work that graduating design students put into their thesis books. Despite the fact that they represent countless hours and result in hard-earned expertise, they are too swiftly relegated to archives and libraries where they are seldom, if ever,…

Two Articles About Aesthetics

Here are two superb articles about the role of aesthetics in the design of digital products. The first is from Emmet Connelly, director of product design at Intercom. Connolly laments the recent commoditization of design aesthetics. He argues that, increasingly, products look more and more indistinguishable from one another. When you squint your eyes and…

Camera Production in the Age of Smartphones

This post from last week at Petapixel shocked me and seemed worth repeating. Not long ago they shared this graphic of how camera sales have grown and shrunk over time, as measured by the Japanese-based Camera & Imaging Products Assocations (CIPA) and as charted by Mayflower Concepts. The story it tells is stark on its…

My Appearance on the Design Details Podcast

Bryn Jackson and Bryan Lovin were kind enough to invite me onto their “Design Details podcast” last week and the episode is out today. We talked about honesty on the Web, juggling multiple projects, cards, “How They Got There” and Kidpost, among other topics. The episode is called “Extravagant Shallowness,” which is apparently something I…

Society of News Design Honors Tom Bodkin

Over the weekend, in Washington, DC, The Society for News Design honored New York Times design director, chief creative officer and a deputy managing editor Tom Bodkin with its Lifetime Achievement Award, the international organization’s highest honor. Tom was my boss during my tenure at The Times, and I’ll be forever grateful to him for…

Vintage American Neon Signs

Design Observer reports on an auction of over 400 vintage pieces of signage from the Walker Collection of American Signs. They were all collected by one man, Vernon Walker, who, over the course of five decades, rescued them from almost certain destruction and lovingly restored them. There are some beautifully preserved examples in the collection,…

Co.Design Is Running Excerpts from How They Got There

Fast Company’s design-focused imprint Co. Design is running three excerpts from my new book, “How They Got There: Interviews With Digital Designers About Their Careers” starting today. The first interview is with infographics designer Nicholas Felton, who talks about “his first job rejection, his fling with Facebook, and the fraught future of data.” It’s a…

Paper Craft Designer at Work

London paper craft designer Lobulo offers a few peeks into his process in these videos. They are a little on the precious side, what with their dreamy indie soundtracks, soft focused imagery, and, for some reason, a meandering spell of low-intensity skateboarding. Nevertheless, it’s mesmerizing to watch the simple rudiments of the art form—little more…

What to Do After You’ve Watched John Oliver

This past Sunday’s episode of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” is a hilarious call for a conversation around the impending renewal of the Patriot Act. The host even traveled all the way to Moscow to sit down with Edward Snowden himself, and managed to get Snowden to frame the imperative for a conversation around whether…