January 2008

What I learned in 2007

January 27, 2008

Yeah, it’s a few weeks late. But 2007 was quite a year—it took some digesting. Marriage is great 2007 was the first full calendar year I was married. It was great. Every day feels like I’m getting away with something...Continue reading...

More good Chuck Jones

January 20, 2008

From the Charlie Rose interview with the great cartoonist: We soon discovered that with humor, the more a person is playing a bit crazy, the funnier it is…The more you narrow a character down, the better it gets; the more...Continue reading...

Notes from Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog

January 11, 2008

Interesting film about the jazz legend (Netflix) Mingus’s personality ran like the color spectrum, from hot to cold. From beautiful to, well, you take it from there - John Handy, 6:00 Charles was just testing people, to see how far...Continue reading...

Notes from Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser

Film mostly made of recovered footage, called “the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz”. (Netflix) In the bebop period…the musicians weren’t obviously trying to please an audience, but they were playing their music their way. It was a real independent expression....Continue reading...

Google and ambition

January 10, 2008

A good example of making what you really want is found in the recent New Yorker article on Google: One thing I like a lot about the company is that the founders—and the company—have gotten more ambitious over time. Every...Continue reading...

How to design concepts

January 06, 2008

Ok, one more thing on this making patterns worth using topic. It is of utmost importance that when you design a concept, you design something you actually want. Obvious? You would think so… I think designers underestimate the power of...Continue reading...

Make a pattern worth using

January 05, 2008

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about designing patterns, it’s that you need to make a pattern worth using. It seems that every technology company today wants to become a “platform”; to make their device or service the foundation for...Continue reading...

Just throw down the paint

A few gems from John Kilduff, a painter who paints while walking on a treadmill (and occasionally does other things as well): There’s no hanging out, thinking about “Oh, maybe I should put some paint on the canvas over in...Continue reading...

Art and design

I often feel that the greatest accomplishments in product design, and experience design, look feeble compared to the greatest accomplishments of art. Think about how rich a great painting is, letting the observer dive as deeply as they want into...Continue reading...