Whitehouse & Company

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?

How many times do you check your e-mail every day?

If you are like most e-mail users, your e-mail program is set up to check for e-mails every 5–10 minutes. That’s a whopping 48–96 possible interruptions per day respectively! That’s like the mail person giving you letters every few minutes throughout the day. Oh! here’s another one.

This is a bad business and organizational practice.

1. It is a sure way to get distracted from your tasks at hand.
2. Answering e-mail throughout the day, instead of at a given time, can cause attention and focus deficits often resulting in poorly thought-out or rushed replies.
3. Answering e-mail throughout the day will often create a “now or never” reply strategy.
4. Constant interruptions can take their toll on your attitude and self-esteem.

Continue reading Productivity Tip: Stop Constantly Checking Your e-mail »

Quark, makers of QuarkXpress just unveiled a new identity which is a really fresh departure from their old dusty 1980’s Quark logo.

Unfortunately, It seems that their new brand is almost identical to that of The Scottish Arts Council.

Continue reading Doing Your Identity Homework »

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.

Remember the days when you’d long to listen to music by the album? You went over to your shelves and looked at the album artwork to find the music you wanted to listen to. With the invention of MP3s and digital music players, the concept of album covers as navigational aids got lost (along with shelves full of records). Suddenly looking for a song meant you had to know the artist, album, or song name. As a visual thinker, I can easily tell you what any album in my music collection looks like from memory, but have a real problem with knowing what album a given song is on.

Continue reading CoverFlow: Better Digital Music Navigation »

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.

Continue reading Concept: Netflix Drop Off Advertising »