Click the pic for a brief history of icon design on computers. The first consumer computer with a GUI was created at Xerox PARC which influenced Apple’s further development of the GUI (See the post on the Apple Lisa below). It is worth noting that Apple got the idea from the mouse at PARC. Laserprinters and Ethernet come from PARC as well. Enough PARC, Matthew. Click the photo above to see how computer icons have developed over these last 30 years.
Before there was a Macintosh, there was a Lisa. I’ve never seen one in real life. I think they sold about 12 of them.
Ok this link is straight-up nerdy, but I know of couple of you might like this one. This is a collection of scripts that run within Adobe Illustrator to automate some relatively difficult geometric tasks. Browse through the images on the page. If you are an experienced Illustrator user, I think you will have a couple “Oh I could have used in that one project” moments, as I did. Interesting stuff. Full Disclosure: I have not tried any of these :)
I’m speechless. Thanks, Dustin.
Ok here’s another link from the crazy-old archive. Are you interested in design? Add Surfstation.com to your bookmarks and see if it doesn’t inspire you a bit.
TuneGlue is an interesting website that shows the relationship between different musicians and bands. Type in one of your favorite artists and see who they have played with. The results are interesting and fun to explore via their mindmap-like interface. Yes, this link is crazy old but I’m clearing out old bookmarks so here you go. Enjoy!
This is a great interview concerning the overuse of Helvetica by designers. I totally agree with the last sentiment in the photograph above. People use Helvetica because it is accepted and safe. And it’s been in style for the last several years, so everyone uses it.
I agree with Maag, Univers is a better choice in many situations. It’s cleaner and more contemporary. Helvetica is anachronistic, rooted in the Akzidenz Grotesk of the late 1800s. Look at the both side-by-side. Which do you prefer? Once you look at both, lets talk about it. I’d like to hear which you prefer and why.
Check this out for a weird & nerdy event wherein two typographers designed type collaboratively over the internet in the style of a Photoshop Tennis match. Go read it. Interesting stuff. And check out other cool collaborative projects at layertennis.com. Brought to you by the good people at Coudal – check out their site for tons of interesting ideas.
Interesting to see that Google is getting involved in the web font discussion. Here’s a set of free opensource fonts you can use online served right off of Google’s servers. Interesting.
Daaaang, that’s pretty. It’s type for a spice company’s identity. Click it for a few more pics or click here for more of this designer’s work. Warning: there is so really nice work in here. Definitely check out her Madewell Packaging. It’s really nice.