Khoi Vinh's Blog, page 82

The Original Macintosh, Circa 2015

This concept design from Curved Labs pays tribute to the original 1984 Macintosh design by reconfiguring a MacBook Air into a novel, beautiful new form factor. From the front, it looks very much like its antecedent, but from the side it’s more reminiscent Hitchcock’s portrait—it suggests the mass of the thing it represents by merely…

What They See

What Rembrandt van Rijn’s “Portrait of a Man Holding Gloves” sees: What Harriet Whitney Frishmuth’s “The Vine” sees: What Amedeo Modigliani’s “Reclining Nude” sees: Just brilliant. More at whattheysee.tumblr.com. + Share Facebook Twitter Google+

Lazarus

Owning an iPad has made me a more frequent reader of comic books than I have been at any point since I was a kid. I don’t write a lot about the ones I read here because I find that few people who don’t already read comics are willing to give them a try—despite all…

Color Grading Movies

This remarkable video demonstrates the material impact of the color grading process in digital film making. It shows footage from the 2014 horror film “The House on Pine Street” before, during and after it’s been manipulated. The original picture quality is surprisingly bland and tonally even, lacking in dramatic contrasts. Here’s one example. Color grading…

Terms of Service: A Comic about Privacy

I haven’t yet read this so I can’t vouch for the content, but at first blush it looks terrific. Al Jazeera America reporter Michael Keller and non-fiction cartoonist Josh Neufeld created this digital comic book about the implications of living in the era of Big Data. In their introduction, they talk about the double-edged sword…

Warby Parker Year in Review

Online vision retailer Warby Parker produced this delightfully simple Year in Review for 2014. It highlights the company’s notable events and achievements from last year with two dozen pleasingly casual illustrations; click on each to reveal details and links. It’s very charming and engaging without looking like the company had to invest a disproportionate amount…

Reactions to Touch ID from a Guy Who Just Got It Recently

Back in October, when I upgraded from the original iPhone 5 to my new iPhone 6 Plus, I entered the world of Touch ID for the first time. What a revelation. When it works, it’s a superb, almost magical experience—I want it for all of my devices, and for my desktop, too. When it works.…

The Search for General Tso

It’s an open secret that most of the items found on Chinese restaurant menus in America are not in fact Chinese. The most famous and popular of them, General Tso’s chicken, isn’t really even a dish that a real guy named General Tso created. This documentary, which was produced in part by a former colleague…

My New Book Is Called “How They Got There”

I’ve been working for many months on a new book, and it’s just about ready. It’s called “How They Got There: Interviews With Digital Designers About Their Careers.” You can sign up to be notified as soon as it’s ready at this web site—if you do you’ll even get an early bird discount on the…

Northern Lights in 4K

I really enjoyed this gorgeous video of the aurora borealis as shot just a few days ago with Sony Alpha 7S digital camera. Its footage of the Murphy Dome area near Fairbanks, Alaska at night is ghostly and surreal, and the northern lights themselves are incredibly vivid—like something rendered with computer graphics, except more real…