Full website is here: http://robotsandmonsters.org/gallery/

You can also see the complete set of Robots and Monsters on Flickr.

Brand New has a great write up of the new logo. Part of the challenge was to find a logo that worked across a wide variety of mediums. I really like the logo in the videos on the Brand New site. It comes across as soft and squishy and just generally very playful.

As far as the channel identities, I think that the nick jr. one is by far the most successful. I do dislike the Teen Nick logo however. I’ve been struggling to figure out why but I just can’t put my finger on it. Besides what I feel is an unfortunate color combination, there’s something else about it that just doesn’t sit right. Perhaps it just doesn’t feel “edgy” enough to appeal to teens?

Overall I think the logo change is very successful. All of the individual treatments for each channel are unique while still very much feeling a part of the greater identity.

The first is an Auto-Tuned mishmash of news clips. The Katie Couric part really is amazing:

And second is Winston Churchill backed by band from the future:

The video (below) does an artful job of exampling the credit crisis. The visuals are essential in the explanation of the credit crunch.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

You can read more about Jarvis’ Crisis of Credit project and others at http://jonathanjarvis.com/.

I think these sock dogs are the cutest things ever. Actually, I already own two. Katie has informed me that I am no longer allowed to purchase her sock dogs. So sad.

Via Kottke.

• Newsdesigner.com | Top 50 U.S. front pages
• Newseum | Today’s Front Pages

Overall, the quality of front page designs is excellent. There is one newspaper cover that stands out to me though, is the Chicago Sun-Times.

I really think this is the perfect cover. A great photograph. A simple two words. A grand statement, wrapped in restraint. Beautiful.

The runner-ups are the St. Petersburg Times, Statesmen journal, and Virginian-Pilot.

Honorable mentions go to the following covers:

Lastly, I have to make mention of the Boston Herald and its never-ending pursuit of the perfect tabloid-style front page.

Basically, these items are packaged at in ready-to-ship boxes, minus the retail packaging. Amazon can send the boxes without using extra packaging. It sounds like it saves everybody some money and helps reduce waste. Great call Amazon.

Design-wise, I’m really digging the way that Fisher-Price cardboard box looks in the picture. Nice and simple.

This building has always amazed me ever since the first time I stumbled upon it. It is quite an impressive sight. Oddly enough, I live within walking distance of this building. I didn’t realize until I read the Wikipedia entry on the building that several notable people have their offices in the Stata Center, including Noam Chomsky, Tim Berners-Lee and Richard Stallman.

The funniest thing for me about the architecture of the building is that it has always given me a very visceral reminder of Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead. Every time I see the building I think that it looks like something Howard Roark would have built.

I have no idea why I always have this reaction, because when I actually stop to think about it, I believe that Roark would hate the Stata Center. He would hate it because it doesn’t make any sense. Excerpts from the Wiki entry only highlight this fact:

There is also one lecture room where, because of the slight lean of the wall panels, some people have been known to experience vertigo. Sound insulation is almost absent. The building has also been criticized as insensitive to the needs of its inhabitants, poorly designed for day-to-day use[...]

Also later in the entry:

On October 31, 2007,[9] MIT sued[10] architect Frank Gehry and the construction company, Skanska USA Building Inc., for “providing deficient design services and drawings” which caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, drainage to back up, and falling ice and debris to block emergency exits.[8] A Skanska spokesperson said that prior to construction Gehry ignored warnings from Skanska and a consulting company regarding flaws in his design of the amphitheater, and rejected a formal request from Skanska to modify the design.

This is most certainly not something that Roark would have done. If not this though, what would one of Roark’s buildings actually have looked like? It is apparently a common speculation that Rand based Roark’s architecture on that of Frank Lloyd Wright. Although she has specifically denied this, it seems to me to be a very close match based upon her descriptions of Roark’s architecture.

Via Kottke.

It makes me snicker every time I look at it.

Via Design Shack.

Is it just me or does this sign have some really bad kerning around that first ‘O’?

All of the images have been set up as a list of thumbnails which use Lightbox 2 to display large versions.

I spent a little extra time to set up Lightbox on this blog without using a plugin. I’ve been on a steady crusade to get rid of most of my plugins for quite some time. Setting up Lightbox in WordPress was fairly straightforward.

After downloading the Lightbox 2 files, I created a new directory in my template directory called lightbox and dropped all of the lightbox files into it. I then put a function call into the header.php file right before the line that reads <?php wp_head(); ?>.

<head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
    ...some other tags...

    <?php AKM_include_lightbox(); ?>
    <?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>

The AKM_includ_lightbox(); function is just a short little function that I wrote and put in the functions.php file of my template. Here is the function:

function AKM_include_lightbox() {
    $lbDir = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . "/lightbox";

    // Echo out some file path variables for images used lightbox JS
    $output = '<script type="text/javascript">' . "\n";
    $output .= "\t" . 'var tplDir = "' . $lbDir . '";' . "\n";
    $output .= '</script>' . "\n";

    // Echo links to js and css for lightbox
    $output .= '<script type="text/javascript" src="' . $lbDir . '/js/prototype.js"></script>' . "\n";
    $output .= '<script type="text/javascript" src="' . $lbDir . '/js/scriptaculous.js?load=effects,builder"></script>' . "\n";
    $output .= '<script type="text/javascript" src="' . $lbDir . '/js/lightbox.js"></script>' . "\n";
    $output .= '<link rel="stylesheet" href="' . $lbDir . '/css/lightbox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />' . "\n";

    echo $output;   
}

This first line of the function sets up a variable that includes the path to the Lightbox files inside my template directory. This is necessary because the lightbox.js file needs to reference the images included in the Lightbox folder. Without this part, the previous, next and close images will not show up because the link will be going to your WordPress uploads directory.

That second chunk of text in the function echos out a small bit of JavaScript into your header that simply declares the variable tplDir and sets it to the path to your LightBox installation. The last chunk of text inserts all of the necessary Lightbox JavaScript and CSS links into your header. I could have written all of this directly into the header.php file, of course, however I felt that my file was getting a bit messy and that this approach was much more clear.

We also need to make a small edit to the lightbox.js file which is going to use that tplDir variable we set. Find the line in the beginning of the file like this (around line 49):

fileLoadingImage:        'images/loading.gif',     
fileBottomNavCloseImage: 'images/closelabel.gif',

Simply change those two lines to this:

fileLoadingImage:        tplDir+'/images/loading.gif',     
fileBottomNavCloseImage: tplDir+'/images/closelabel.gif',

That completes the Lightbox 2 setup in WordPress without using a plugin. Now all you have to do is add the rel="lightbox" tag to any link you want to use Lightbox. For example, if you have a thumbnail image that links to a larger image like this:

<a href="images/full-size-image.jpg"><img src="images/thumbnail" /></a>

To add the Lightbox effect, just add in the attribute like this:

<a rel="lightbox" href="images/full-size-image.jpg"><img src="images/thumbnail" /></a>

Be sure to check out the Lightbox 2 page for more information on what you can do with it.

The Superest is a continually running game of My Team, Your Team. The rules are simple: Player 1 draws a character with a power. Player 2 then draws a character whose power cancels the power of that previous character. Repeat.

The design of the site itself is is quite elegant and simple. Most of the display type on the site is done in a very nice typeface:

Start from the beginning get the the feeling for the way the superest heros flow one after another.

I literally, with watery eyes, gazed at the way the ‘A’ crops the ‘S’, and thought to myself: “It’s beautiful.” I then immediately chastised myself for having such an emotional reaction to a piece of typography and resumed continued reading my Howard Zinn book.

Brand New has an excellent review of new branding and logo in MassTerful Identity. The article also features a lot of excellent photographs of signage and marketing material. Also, it appears as though a complete overhaul of the MassArt website is in the works (thank God). I can’t wait to see what they do with the new one.

Score one for KJ’s alma mater!

Just as the author of the critique mentions, I was watching the Puppy Bowl last sunday and noticed the new logo. Every time I saw it, it gave me a little jolt. Not really in a good way either. I kept thinking to myself “What is that?”

Perhaps it was really just the two Bloody Mary’s that caused me to find the look of the logo so jarring. I dunno. That M is really bad though. It just looks like a mess. No matter how many times I look at the logo, I have to actually think to realize the word is ‘animal’ and not ‘ani al’ or ‘ani3al.’ I bet my old Typography professor would have a fit over this one.

Via Kottke.

Then I read that an eight-year-old did it. That must say something about my aesthetic.

The new print issue comes out on Friday. I’ll be checking it out.

I got a couple of them at a hardware store to test, but the smallest ones are too big, maybe 1/5 inch diameter. Smaller is better. Hello Google. I found this place called K&J Magnetics, which looks like they have what I need.

So of course, I started browsing around this site, and looking at what they have. They seem to specialize in neodymium magnets. Now, I don’t know what those are, but apparently they’re somewhat dangerous:

Eye protection should be worn when handling these magnets, because shattering magnets can launch pieces at great speeds.

Um, okay that’s a little scary.

The strong magnetic fields of neodymium magnets can also damage magnetic media such as floppy disks, credit cards, magnetic I.D. cards, cassette tapes, video tapes or other such devices. They can also damage televisions, VCRs, computer monitors and other CRT displays. Never place neodymium magnets near electronic appliances.

How near is ‘near’? Do they mean don’t put the magnet on top of the hard drive (thank you Captain Obvious) or don’t bring the magnet within three feet of the computer?

Never allow neodymium magnets near a person with a pacemaker or similar medical aid. The strong magnetic fields of the magnet can affect the operation of such devices

If I use these magnets in my art project, do I run the risk of causing someone’s pacemaker to fail?

Okay, so safety issues aside, we’re forging ahead with the neo-thingy magnets. I already have a particular use for my magnets in mind, but if I was running short on ideas, K&J Magnets has got it covered:

Geocaching
Magnets can be used to secure a cache in place, as a treasure in a cache, or even to retrieve hard-to-get cache.
Removing Dents from Brass Musical Instruments
Got a dent in your tuba? Fix it with a magnet. This is done by inserting a steel ball into the instrument of similar diameter to the thickness of where the dent is located. A large magnet is then used to control the ball and work it to the dent. Once in place, the ball can be rolled back and forth over the inside of the dent until the dent is worked out.
Holding a Pacifier to a Doll’s Mouth
Our D42 discs are a favorite of Berenguer Baby enthusiasts. The magnets will also work well with other dolls, teddy bears and stuffed animals.
Pierce-free Body Jewelry
Our smaller magnets (large ones will pinch and hurt) are often used as pierce-free body jewelry.
Holding “Star Trek Transponders” to Costumes (no kidding)
More than one customer has used our magnets to make removable and replaceable Star Trek Transponders for use in a production.

There are a lot more examples. These were just my favorites. Who knew.

• Photoshop gets a new logo (comments)
• See What’s Possible
• Photoshop 2.0: The Wrong Kind of 2.0

The first three things that came to my mind when I saw the new logo were:

1. Ew
2. Microsoft
3. This is a joke right?

Nothing very groundbreaking there. I haven’t read of a single person liking it, and many have also pointed out how similar it looks Microsoft designs. While I thought Microsoft in the back of my head, I didn’t actually bother to go look at any Microsoft stuff to compare. That is…until Armin Vit linked to one for comparison.

Yikes. I decided to go back to the Photoshop website for some further comparison. As it turns out, there’s some very lovely¹ Microsoft-esque marketing videos. The thing that really caught my eye was the whole silhouetted people concept. It reminded me of something…oh wait! I know! People_Ready!

I just don’t get what Adobe is trying to achieve here (other than cheapening their brand)². It seems like just a couple of months ago that Adobe went through that whole CS3 re-branding thing. While I don’t think that it was 100% successful, at least it did unify the suite in a unique way. Those little color bricks have grown on me, although I still have an awfully hard time telling which one is which. The only one I can remember is that Dreamweaver is green, but then again…Dreamweaver has always been green. Anyway, enough said on my part. Read Armin Vit’s article for a more articulate analysis.’

1. Insert sarcasm here.↩
2. One could at least hope for a drastic price cut to follow. ↩

When we got the call to design the bible — we obviously asked — the bible of what? … fashion? shoes? bible of best bars in Britain? But no, Hodder & Stoughton really wanted us to design a cover for the Holy Bible.

I quite like this design, particularly the big red “sticker” that says “The Bible.” I wonder if this is available outside of the UK?

Via Monoscope.