Thinking For a Living

From TypeForYou

Duane King set up Thinking for a Living as a guide to new designers. The Resources section lists a bunch of recommended books and the Surfing section has a list of key sites of magazines, organization, conferences, blogs and more.

The Life and Work of William Addison Dwiggins

Linotyped published “The Life and Work of William Addison Dwiggins” from their Linotype Matrix magazine. I can eat this stuff up all day long. I haven’t yet used any of his fonts for any work but I’ve been eyeing New Caledonia for some time. Caravan also looks like it may come into use soon.

Barry Schwartz: The Line Between Clarity & Chaos

Boxes & Arrows interviewed Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choice. Interesting points were:

a) his comparing Google filtering to editorial filtering under the guise of democracy
b) the power of defaults:

The power of defaults is this:

When you enter your
drivers’ license, you get asked if you’d like to be an organ donor. And
if you do, you have to check a box and sign a form. And in the United
States, 90% of people approve of organ donation but 20% are organ
donors. There are several European countries that also use the drivers’
license as the opportunity to sign up organ donors. In those countries,
organ donation is 90%. And the only difference is, in those countries,
you have to sign a form and check a box if you don’t want to be an
organ donor. Otherwise you are.

The Grammar of Ornament

The University of Wisconsin has put online a copy of a 1910 printing of “The Grammar of Ornament.” Gotta love the fact that it is in public domain now.

EDIT:  I just found out that Illuminated-Books.com has Grammar of Ornament on their site as well, only with thumbnails of each page. They also have Owen Jones’ other illustrated books up as well with a brief bio. You can also read a brief bio of him at Univerity of Virgina Library of Fine Arts page. And as always you can learn more at wikipedia.

The Best Personal-Publishing Services

Kevin Kelly covers what he feels are the two best personal book publishing services: Blurb and Lulu.

Maeda and the “Laws of Simplicity”

Maeda has 10 Laws of Simplicity.

Law 1: REDUCE - The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

How simple can you make it?

How complex does it have to be

Law 5: DIFFERENCES – Simplicity and complexity need each other.

Law 7: EMOTION – More emotions are better than less

Law 10: THE ONE – Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. (My favorite)

Also of benefit is Key 1: Away – “More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away”. I’m hoping this is the case when I finally have my products delivered by the order fulfillment company. I could use some simplicity there.

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How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Websites

Digital Web Magazine published an article by Dan Brown that shows how to Conduct a Competitive Analysis of Websites in a two part series. It is full with hands on ideas that help you manage and conduct a competitive analysis. Very good practical stuff. It is from a chapter of Dan Brown’s Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning that I now need to peep.

eBook: The Measure of Marketing

Decent introduction of marketing measurement in this free eBook: “The Measure of Marketing.”

Thinking With Type: Companion Site

Thinking with Type: A companion site to the book. Nicely done.

The Design of Sites

Speaking of design patterns. I strongly recommend “The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience.”