Whitehouse & Company

For those of us who have to deal with symbols and icons on a regular basis, and there can’t be many of us who don’t nowadays, Mies Hora’s new publication Official Signs and Icons 2 is a wonderful resource. It comes both as a book and a CD (containing outline EPS files) which you can buy separately or as a set.

In eleven chapters, it brings together in one volume, pretty much every symbol you will ever need to wrestle with, including highway and transportations signs, safety symbols, recreational symbols and some nerdy stuff for electronics, computers, meteorology, and labelling. Most fun is the chapter which shows each character of the alphabet in signal flags, semaphore positions, Morse code, American Sign Language, and Braille.

There have been several such books published from time to time since Henry Dreyfus’ 1972 Symbol Sourcebook, which still contains the most fascinating and esoteric selections, such as hobo signs. But for symbols with everyday applications, if you aren’t planning to jump a freight train, Mies has excelled himself in putting together this exhaustive collection (although I must admit I gave him a little help with some of those relating to accessibility).

Last week in Central Park, a gingko tree in full color. This week, the last leaves are falling.

We were presented with this dialog box while updating to Adobe CS2 this week. I was so disappointed that the OK button didn’t say UPDATE instead.

Photographed in London last month, these two new footbridges over the Thames are very much worth checking out and have really made access to the newly developed South Bank of the Thames more inviting. The Millennium bridge, by architects Foster and Partners with sculptor Sir Anthony Caro ran into some early bouncing problems and was closed until the installation of monster shock absorbers. Leading directly from St. Paul’s to the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre it provides some wonderful vantage points of the River and the City. The new Hungerford footbridges, one on each side of the rail bridge, by architects Lifschutz Davidson replace an old, dangerous, and creepy footbridge I often used during trips back and forth from the National Film Theatre when a student. Take the tube to St. Paul’s, walk over the MIlennium Bridge to the Tate Modern, then west along the embankment, and return to Trafalgar Square via the new Hungerford bridge (the west side is best). Great views and some stimulating modern design. All paid for by a publc lottery. Is this a way to go for paying for much needed public space improvements in the US?

We featured a wonderful Wendy House a few weeks ago, designed by UK Architects Sanei Hopkins for their daughters. They have followed up this success with an equally wonderful project for their sons. (Before we start, we have to explain that Pig Arcs in the UK are arched corrugated galvanized steel shelters for pigs to live in — like mini Quonset huts). To quote their own words:

“As there was no precedent for a ‘Peter Pan House’ we based the design on a Suffolk Pig Arc for ‘Flying Pigs’. This concept captured the imagination of all our children as they were all intrigued to know when the pigs would come? In fact, most of the design decisions could be explained to them simply by referring to the needs of the flying pigs. eg. the structure is suspended between two trees because the pigs need good clearance around them when they are coming in to land. Also, the structure is only six feet off the ground as flying pigs can’t fly very high etc. The boys have permission to use the structure only when the pigs aren’t there.”

Who said minimalism is no fun?

hannspree.com

Bored with your minimalist Apple Cinema Display? Try this mean green apple monitor (shown with doors closed). Bored with your beige CRT? How about a lobster, or Buzz LIghtyear, or fries? These and many, many, other mindboggling alternatives available from Hannspree. (For those suffering from Flashophobia, there are, thankfully, many well-placed skip buttons on the website). Maybe its about time we designers loosened up a bit.

As designers, we are more used to clients throwing this stuff at us, so the basket of fruit above which arrived at our studio today, politely and in edible condition, and from a very wonderful client, was very much appreciated. It is particularly nice when clients appreciate (presumably) what we do for them. In this particular case, an annual report for the Literacy Assistance Center in New York (we also designed their website). One unique aspect of this piece is that to keep costs down for this not-for-profit organization, we put the President’s letter and financials on an insert slipped between the staples and displaying the concluding two numerals of the year. Next year we simply print a new insert with a new letter and financials, and with 05 on it, and insert that into another thousand copies of the base document that the printer has kept in storage. Two annual reports for the price of one. That’s worth a banana or two.

Netflix and the Netflix logo are copyright 1997–2005 Netflix, Inc. All rights reserved.

When you love Netflix, as much as we do, it can be a real nuisance when you arrive at work having forgotten to post your viewed Netflix DVD envelopes. You curse your eyes for missing the mail box and hope you remember the envelopes on your way home… but then you forget… again… and the cycle continues.

A vicious cycle.

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