July 2009 Archives

Heating Up the Charts: Billboard.com Redesign

Heating Up the Charts: Billboard.com Redesign

My former alma mater, Billboard, relaunched its consumer-facing website Billboard.com last week. I caught up with their VP of digital, Josh Engroff, about the goals, process and design elements of this project. Here's a look inside:

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This Typeface Drives 55

This Typeface Drives 55

Treehugger reports on the Toyota iQ typeface, designed by 2 typographers, a race car driver, and a programmer to promote the new Toyota iQ microcar:
The goal was to design a typeface by tracking the moving car using special software, and the whole undertaking documented with photos and video. A camera mounted on a crane...was used to track 4 color dots on the 4 corners of the car. The movement was then turned into fonts using custom software.
More photos and the making-of video after the jump...
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TED TALKS: Jacek Utko designs to save newspapers


Worth a watch. With a background in architecture Jacek approaches newspaper design with a fresh perspective and some interesting numbers to back up his theories. As the last line in the summary of his talk on TED.com reads "Can good design save the newspaper? It just might." You be the judge.

NPR.org to relaunch Monday

NPR.org.jpgApparently NPR has a new site launching Monday. The video tour they have put together is quite nice and offers some insight into what makes a good news site, view it here:

http://www.npr.org/services/new_site/index.html?sc=nl&cc=progserv-20090723

I urge any of you that can spare a few minutes this weekend to check out the current NPR.org site to get a feel for the changes that will roll out next Monday. Even better if any of you are fans of NPR.org let us know what you think works (or doesn't) in the new version of the site.

*Note : The above screengrab is of NPR.org before the relaunch
The New York Times: NPR Moves to Rewire Its Approach to the Web

Via Subtraction: After the jump, a pretty savvy promo video of NPR's Weekend Edition Host Scott Simon touring the site for the first time...

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Free show this Friday

Free show this Friday

It's summertime in New York and you put the issue to bed... so get your Friday started early:
 
We've got eight pairs of tickets to give away for an private performance from Silversun Pickups at the P.C. Richard & Son Theater in Tribeca presented by iheartradio.
 
Doors open at 3:30 and the show starts at 4:30 on Friday, July 31. Space is limited. 
 
Post a comment here by Tuesday July 28 @ 4 PM EST and we'll enter you into a random drawing for a pair of tickets.

Eat Cheap Eats

Eat Cheap Eats

Two New York low cost food covers hit newsstands on the same week. Which works best?… MORE
IEEE Spectrum: We Choose Mars

IEEE Spectrum: We Choose Mars

On the 40th anniversary of the date Apollo 11 launched to take Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin to the moon, we thought it appropriate to share some work embodying that same "next frontier" spirit: IEEE Spectrum shares a special issue they put together on the human exploration of Mars.
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3-Fer

3-Fer

A few fun things going on in art if you're in the city that cloudy and gray June forgot, and has finally got it's summer on...a quick post for hump day:

WED 07.15
A design talk at the magnificent High Line
If you haven't had the pleasure of strolling it yet...I suggest a weekday or morning coffee as you might get mowed down by strollers on the weekends and the hipster bomb in the evenings...)
A lecture with members of the High Line's design team, James Corner (James Corner Field Operations) and Ric Scofidio and Liz Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro)

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Going (Nuclear) Green

Going (Nuclear) Green

Hi guys. Well, as some of you know Best Life folded this year and i have been given the new charge of Design Director of Men's Health. I logged on to spd.org to share some new Men's Health work when i noticed i had not yet published this layout breakdown of a Best Life story; a spread which went on to get a medal nomination at this year's gala (woo hoo!)...which we didn't win (boo)...ah well. Still thought this might be of interest. Enjoy!

Best Life just wrapped up its travel issue and one of the more interesting stories was about the current state of Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. We sent a writer and photographer there to report; they turned in a story titled "Nature's Revenge".
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Runner's World

Runner's World

Speaking of Dan Winters, Runner's World Design Director Kory Kennedy sends along a little related backstory about a project Dan recently worked on for them:
We recently contacted him to illustrate the opener image for "Turning Up the Heat," a sweat-drenched report by one of our editors who volunteered to run in a heat chamber for sixty minutes at marathon pace (all while being poked and prodded by grad students) and coming to the brink of heatstroke. The assignment: visualize how running in extreme heat affects a runner.
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'Le Tour' Rolls into Austin

'Le Tour' Rolls into Austin

On Thursday, while Lance, Alberto Contador and the rest of the Astana boys will be heading from Gérone to Barcelona in Stage 6 of the 96th Tour De France, I'll be heading from WIRED HQ to Lance's bike shop in my hometown of Austin for opening night of Brent Humphreys 'Le Tour'.
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George Pitts: Notes On Vibe Magazine

George Pitts: Notes On Vibe Magazine

As news swept around last week, in e-mails and trending Twitter topics, that Hip Hop bible Vibe would be the latest magazine to close its doors, the response was felt deeply throughout the SPD community. As many wrote to us to point out, the obit for Vibe written by David Carr of The New York Times was a thoughtful and generous reflection, but said too little about the creative teams who have worked to elevate Hip Hop and the specific culture Vibe both reflected, and created. We asked George Pitts, Vibe's founding Photography Director, for his thoughts about Vibe's place in our collective history, and are honored to share those here:

In what was an unprecedented week of devastating losses to our culture, including the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and the great visionary choreographer Pina Bausch, it was also the week that Vibe magazine folded. The close of Vibe is obviously an event of great personal impact for me, as its first Photography Director, and I've received enough notices from well-wishers to understand that the magazine meant a lot of things to a diverse community of readers.

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Is it me...

...or does someone really need to redraw this map of the LA street closures tomorrow?

It hurts my eyes. And makes me think of how much I like taking the train.

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Send us your MJ Covers

Send us your MJ Covers

Have you designed a Michael Jackson in your past? Created one recently? Send us a JPG (5" tall, 72 dpi) to tips@spd.org. We're making a gallery, and starting off with our first submission here, from Bizz. More, from Rolling Stone, after the jump...
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