Illustration

Design relevant

Politically relevant

Chris Piascik

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GeorgeP

Manos, the hands of fate

I am your destiny!

Microsoft came up with a fun new video.  The sort of nerdly equivalent of prototype cars that never get made.  It's a prediction of sorts, and thankfully, it's also inspired some revolt.

Video and response

To sum it up, pictures under glass is a boring, limited future.  A transitional technology.  I couldn't agree more.

I've also written of buttons in the past, in reference to usability versus mastery.  I would like to add just a few comments further to Bret Victor's post.

I text.  Sometimes I don't want to be looking at the screen while I text.  This is why keyboards aren't touchscreen if at all possible (looking at you Apple).  This is why we are taught mastery of the keyboard, so we can focus on the screen and not our finger tips.  Let's say you have an iPod touch, and you want to go jog with it.  Without specially made headphones that have built in controls, how would you control it?  Can you feel the pause button?  The skip-track button?  Or just glass?  Must you look at an object to control it?  I used to dial numbers and send texts without needing to look down the whole time.  On any given Nokia I could pull up my contact list and be on the letter I needed before the phone made it from pocket to visual contact.  With buttons, mastery becomes a reality, and using our hands WITHOUT vision becomes possible again.  Don't forget all the amazing things you can do with your finger tips, like Victor says, pictures under glass cannot be the future.

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GeorgeP

Thanks vandalistic art students!

MOAR!

Temporary hot brown liquid containment apparatus.

Dear Starbucks,

You consume way too many paper cups.  Cup summit be damned, you need to help change behavior.

ONE

Take your menu and lower price of all your products by 10 cents; the amount saved by bringing in a reusable container.  Then "charge" a paper-cup fee of 10 cents for anyone without a cup.  This will not alter the actual cost of anything, but by switching from a 10 cent discount incentive for those of us with travel mugs, to a 10 cent punitive charge to those of us without, it becomes psychologically more powerful.  Prices don't change, but I can guarantee it will change behavior.  I'm sure "management" doesn't like the idea (who likes fees?), but if they did something like this, it would at least be news worthy.  In other words, Starbucks could very publicly make their case, and a decision like this, if successfully implemented, could be a retail game changer, perhaps nudging Walmart to start charging for bags.  Paradigm shifts and all that.

TWO

Hear me out Starbucks.  This is the Christmas tchotchke of the year.  Go tech with the RFID chips that are already in many cards, or go low tech with a unique barcode.  Either way, you pay with your mug, not a card.  This is another behavior changing concept.  You don't get your prepaid coffee without your mug.  Plus, this means people might actually reload their cards (mugs), instead of throwing them away.  Keep your normal cards too, it's low risk.

Thanks for listening Starbucks.  By implementing these ideas, you can save trees, and trees = money.

Further reading: FastCompany.
Further watching: TED

Presentation Complete.
GeorgeP

Musical Interlude

Husband and Wife

All Hallows Eve slipped by us this year.  Thanks to a stomach virus, and a lack of planning.  Here's a metaphorical look at our relationship through last year's costume decisions.

To music.

A great majority of the music I listened to 10 years ago, is either too angst-y or depressing to listen to anymore. Les Savy Fav, however, has stayed relevant with me in a way that most of the music I was listening to in 2000 doesn't.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this guy put his finger in my mouth while singing onstage (he took Puma's shirt off too).  Or more likely, they just create compelling music.

shirts and pants are for suckas

The song 'Crawling Can Be Beautiful' came up on my shuffle the other day, and I ended up listening to it several times over.   It sure beats standing still.  Shout out to Gavin for this introduction.

I saw Yo Yo Ma and friends on Colbert the other day and started pondering musical composition.  I don't know much about composing, but both songs they played from their new "Goat Rodeo" album don't stay in the same musical place for more than 3 stanzas, then it's off to a new variation on the theme.  I think Ratatat is the only indie band that is doing anything like this (that I know of) and Girl Talk, but that's kind of a different type of composition (maybe Explosions in the Sky?).  In trying to compare compositions, I discovered the following video that had slipped by me before.  Sit back, relax and drink in the visual insanity.

Finally, let me introduce you to Metronomy.  This is the first band discovery in a while that has gotten me excited enough to purchase their music.  And by purchase, I mean, Genevieve bought it for me on Amazon.  Here is a sample, and the video that connected me to them in the first place.

Metronomy - "The Bay" + BMX

Metronomy - "The Look" official video

Presentation complete.

GeorgeP

Sales Department

198# Centurion Ironman Dave Scott Signature edition, 56cm.  Magenta/Yellow colorway.

Hotness

Dura Ace rear wheel, '105' level 7 speed index shifting.  Note the Horizontal dropouts for SS/Fixed conversion.

Quite a bit of rust, good winter bike.  This is the worst of it.

Tange 1 Tubeset, highest end at the time, sub 5 lb frame.

Indexed Downtube shifters.  This allows any handlebar you want w/out shifter changout problems.

100 dollars worth of tires alone, and I'm asking $125.  This will fit someone from 5' 8" to 6' 1".  Right now it has a very short stem to fit someone my height 5' 8", if you're 6', then I can switch to a longer stem.

Act now!

Brought to you by giant cardboard letters

This is last fall.  Typography/Photography/Book project.  Font = Futura Bold

This is architecture studio space, not ID space (we're not as umm, endowed)

Right?

Rock chalk, etc.

This garage-like space is where they stuff ID students

Admittedly, this tree could stand more intesity

Presentation Complete

GeorgeP

Mining the near past

Cardboard Chair project, Spring '11

Holds under my rotundness

A dastardly tough construction

A bit stressed from use

Best angle?

Inspiration?  This handsome fellow; Gerrit Rietveld

"I see the future, and it is in color"

Red Blue Chair, 1917

Steltman Chair 1963

Presentation complete.

Day of the dead

Genevieve did a great pumpkin this year.

Day of the Dead pumpkin is cultural, and stays out an extra day

I was under the weather, so I'll sit on this laurel.

"Prisons for profit?  Hells yeah"

Today my Facebook account dies, and is reborn in Google+.  This is in a hope that I will use the product, whereas I don't use facebook, ever, never.

Today this blog comes back from the dead as well.  I have plenty to post, from many classes, field trips, and grand ideas.  The idea is 5 times a week, check email, check my google+ (not sure how that goes yet), and throw a blog up, which sounds kind of messy.  And I'll only need account to do it all, so that's kind of the point.  Thanks Googs, you rule my life.

Here's to routine!