Taking a rest

I'll be taking a rest from blogging in the near future. I'm enjoying Picasa too much and playing with my kitty.

Yummy lo-fi photography

 

Via Flickr 1 2 3

Octavianbudai's Typographic Experiments

Adventurous and ballsy typography.

Via Flickr

Boom Boom Music Vol 7

My mixtape series continues with Boom Boom Music Vol 7 (for those that aren't in the loop, this mixtape is something I make for my car and "Boom Boom" is in relation to the noise that comes out of my car speakers when these beats hit yall).

This time round Boom Boom returns to it's routes with lots of heavy hip hop beats that are designed to shake the speakers as well as a few straight up rock tunes. It kicks off on a dark note with Kanye West's Love Lockdown which has narrowly avoided the Boom Boom series for quite some time, then into the highs of Missy Elliot's We Run This. Already I'm regretting including Calvin Harris and Ready for the Weekend, it's completely out of place, and not for the usual Boom Boom reasons (I usually include a random track, normally the closing track).

Volume 7 closes with possibly the best closer I have included on a mixtape, The Beatles - Here, There and Everywhere. In fact, it's unintentionally Beatles-heavy too with a couple of inclusions with two inclusions from Dangermouse's masterful Grey Album.

Enjoy and burn.

Side A

• Kanye West - Love Lockdown
• Swizz Beatz - Top Down
  
• Missy Elliot - We Run This
• Jay-Z & DJ Dangermouse - Dirt Off Your Shoulder
• Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U
• Korn - Here to Stay

Side B

• Queens of the Stone Age - Medication
• Calvin Harris - Ready for the Weekend
• Thom Yorke - Black Swan
• Dizzee Rascal - Da Feelin'
• Jay-Z & DJ Dangermouse -Allure
• The Beatles - Here, There and Everywhere
  

How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you

I love Google suggest. It knows me better than I know myself. I was watching my cat, Denzel, go crazy on my ankles when I thought about something my workmate Adrian was talking about a few weeks ago, that he could be a decendant from wildcats.

I decided to Google "How to tell if your cat is a wildcat" as soon as I got to "How to tell if you-" I was presented with "How to tell if your pregnant" with my pet hate of the misuse of "you're". Second result "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you".

1. Google knew I wanted to know something about my cat
2. Google knew my cat was being troublesome (I think he's of the wild variety)
3. Google got to the route cause - my cat might be trying to kill me

I ran the search and found this helpful resource for anybody that may be in a similar situation: http://www.catswhothrowupgrass.com/kill.php containing a helpful quiz. Apparently there is a 78% chance that my cat is plotting to kill me... until he gives me that wuvley wittle wook on his face, then I believe in the other 22%. I love you Denzel, even if you are "kneading" my guts to check for weakness.

Ahoy tharrrrrr!

Avast! Thar be plenty of pirate themed designs to behold on talk like a pirate day, gyaaaar! I sourced this booty(ful) example of packaging design from Image Sparrrrrrk. Arrrr, I'm sorry.

Via ImageSpark

Pavement Reunite!

I have had the words "Pavement" and "Stephen Malkmus" as a custom RSS feed for Google News in my RSS reader for months waiting for this news, then it lit up yesterday with 5 items, that's 5 more than normal. I nearly had a stroke.

Turns out my favourite guys from Stockton, CA are playing a show in New York next September, I must be a part of this, I need to see this happening LIVE! In the meantime, I'll have them on repeat in iTunes and my DVD player will contsantly be playing Slow Century (with a region hack).

Enjoy Shady Lane, (everybody needs one!)

ANCO Graffiti

I spot this every day on my way to work and it always brings a smile to my face. Have a look at some more snaps of ANCO's work on Flickr

I wuv Squared Eye

 

I was having a lovely read of the Squared Eye - Deep Thoughts section of their site and discovered an awesome template for making Levi, their whale mascot. He now lives in my home office staring at the Hudson River. These guys have a way of making their brand so loveable and accessible.

Stella Artios - Recyclage De Luxe

 

 

Lovely advertising campaign for Stella Artios' Recyclage De Luxe, spotted this in Wired magazine (UK).

Via StellaArtois.com

Vintage Time Travel posters

 

 

 

Found these via Dan Cederholm at SimpleBits.com - go here to admire them all - http://826la.org/store-sundries/#F.A.T.

Pokedstudio Cards

 

 

Wonderfully simple but awesome cards created by Jonathan Ball of Pokedstudio, Wales. Two of my favourites Treak and Barebear.

Via Pokedstudio

jordanmooreblog web design awards #1

Screw the "n websites to shake a stick at" style lists, I'm holding an awards ceremony for websites that I like a lot better than others. Then some reasons why.

Squared Eye

 

• Great choice of font, especially the italic Lucida Sans - pushing boundaries because it's a rarely used font on the web and who knew it would look that good in italics
• The product (their work in this case) takes center stage - as it should for someone offering a product
• It's just different, okay? None of the "Hello! We are a company from Bleh, we make pretty/good/neat websites" they also don't feel the need to tell you what their last tweet was.

Black Estate

• One of the most readable sites I have ever seen, these guys show everybody how to use BIG type well.
• The product takes center stage
• The site "feels" like part of the brand

Leihu

• A LOT of thought has went into the layout and the quirkiness of James Mathias' homepage, rollover on his photo in the right, he smiles - awesome
• His work IS the design - the octopus on the left, good illustration, he's an illustrator, ah his product is presented on the homepage, pattern?
• Attention to typography is good, look at the ampersands in the right column (which have been harshly shaven off my screenshot due to width restrictions here) 

That does it for now, I'll maybe do a #2 soon (tee-hee) but I'll wait until I find a few more gems, preferably ones you haven't seen a million times before. It seems like I'm ranting a bit today, I'm sorry, I'll be in a better mood tomorrow. I'm safer when I keep my posts to one or two sentences.

Stop talking so loud!

Sending an "@" message in Twitter is like a normal conversation between you and someone else, and maybe a few passers by, the followers of both parties if you will, can hear this conversation also.

However, sending an "@" message in Twitter with a cuntingly annoying "." or "-" before the "@" is like shouting your conversation so EVERYONE CAN HEAR.

Not everyone wants to hear an in-joke between two people, or a witty reply that you're especially proud of. If I wanted to hear the conversation between both of you, I would have followed both of you.

Added geotagging stuff to jordanmooreblog.

One of the great new features coming to Blogger is the ability to geotag posts, this is very awesome. I think this calls for some adventures, stay tuned.

Type for design

Personally I prefer the illustrated approach in the first image as it involves a bit more skill. The latter is filled with cliched words, still looks nice but feels a bit forced.

Via Build Internet

Fail Whale salt and pepper shakers

Well, not quite but they are strikingly similar.

Via ffffffffound.com

Awesome examples of Letterpress Design

Letterpressed business cards are certainly worth the extra monies, they convey impact, elegance and professionalism, giving any potential client a sense of faith and trust in what you do.

Via BeastPieces.com

Trademark vintage design colours

Nice use of.

Via ImageSpark

Sub Studio's Nursery Prints

Sub Studio have a fantastic collection of prints in their design store. This is their take on popular nursery rhymes.

Ed Nacional

Calgary born designer Ed Nacional is currently has just finished a design internship at the New York Times, I was admiring his work on the Terry Shop branding, but his whole portfolio is simply f-ing awesome.

FLORIAN - Stop Motion

Michael Mallon, my university chum, has a great thing going over at Anim8 Stop Motion. It attracts delights like this little love story titled FLORIAN.

Via Anim8StopMotion.com

Clear Typography Packaging

This basic sans-serif font is able to spell out the contents of the bag as well as provide a bit of copy that gives the product character.

Via ffffound

International Bacon Day

According to Blogger it's still International Bacon Day. I couldn't think of a more worthwhile day for us all to embrace and reflect upon what bacon has done for us and how we can ensure greater consumption of the only meat that smells as good as it tastes.

I aim to celebrate with a bacon bagel.

http://internationalbaconday.blogspot.com/

Paramore cover Use Somebody

These guys managed to grab a coveted place on my Jordie's Boom Boom* Music vol VI mixtape with Misery Business (I know I'm late to the party on that one, I ignored it for too long). They seem like an ok little band, KROQ introduced me to them, they're one of the better bands on Kevin & Bean's playlist.

*Songs that make my speakers tremble

Boom Boom Music vol VI Tracklisting

It's Goin' Down The X-ecutioners
Sirens Dizzee Rascal
Izzo (H.O.V.A.) Jay-Z
Deeper Underground Jamiroquai
My Way Limp Bizkit
Misery Business Paramore
Revelations Audioslave
Bête Noire The Gutter Twins
Ride The Sky II Revolution Mother
The Fixer Pearl Jam
Just Like a King Seasick Steve

The Art of Science

This caught my eye while reading the latest issue of Wired, I'm not going to paraphrase, you can read what's going on in the link. Basically the image shows the degradation of computer memory over time using the Mona Lisa as an example.

Beck's record club

This is why the information superhighway is the future, great artists like Beck are using it as a way of releasing new music to the masses. In this project, Beck re-records classic albums and posts them on his record club.

http://www.beck.com/record_club

Via Wired

Vintage typography

I am obsessed with vintage typography these days. I'm taking a lot of care over type especially in web projects. Think I'll do a talk soon on it and post the slides here when I'm done. That was all about me instead of the image, sorry - nice pic.

Via WebDesignerDepot

Illustrations by daveisdrawing

This guy's photostream on Flickr is awesome.

Vintage Labels

A few examples of well presented type. Each label has a clear focal point with carefully considered content designed to support it.

Via ImageSpark

Frank Chimero

I just *love* the bold use of colour throughout Frank Chimero's portfolio. Great mixture of thin and heavy lines, I have no idea what stories he is trying to tell (if any) but it doesn't matter, nor do I care, his work is just awesome.

Via: FrankChimero.com

FOWD Belfast 2009

Had a fun day at Future of Web Design amongst the quiet audience in the Odyssey's W5. We were treated to live edits from Andy Clarke at StuffandNonsense.co.uk and Drew McLellan from Edgeofmyseat.com.

I was blown away by the thinking of Morgan McKeagney and his talk on the meeting of creative and logical minds, his delivery alone had me on board from slide 1. The Standardistas also impressed with a talk about good copy, I'm biased of course - I had the privilege of being taught by Chris and Nik. The age old IE6 debate raised it's head again, we'll be talking about it for another half a decade or so. Not looking forward to that.

Andy ended the day by putting forward the interesting concept of designing in the browser (instead of Photoshop and/or Fireworks). I'd love to try this, but you really need a client on board with this idea to pull it off in my opinion. Good day, good people, good night.