Something New In The Air

The folks over at Visual Culture, a new design blog, have a nice set of airline logos for your perusal. They've researched hundreds of logos, picked out the best of the best and sorted them into 3 categories: type treatment, bird symbols, and general symbols.

Check out the rest over at: Visual Culture.

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HMK

Thanks to Design Observer.

Bicycling During Wartime

David Byrne's “Mudflap Tammy,” at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue.

When the NYC Department of Transportation asked David Byrne to help judge a design competition for the city’s new bike racks, he not only agreed, he was so intreeged that he sent in his own designs as well!

Read the whole New York Times piece by Ariel Kaminer: David Byrne, Cultural Omnivore, Raises Cycling Rack to an Art Form.

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HMK

Cell Phone Popcorn

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
by sassiere

And I understand that when you do this with your iPhone - it comes with butter and salt!

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HMK

Awesome Olympic Tracker

Just in time for tomorrow's Opening of the 2008 Olympics!

Behold - the amazing, realtime and fully customizable Olympic Tracker created for the New York Times by Tom Jackson, Aron Pilhofer and Matt Ericson

Outstanding work guys - thank you!

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HMK

1000th Post!

Wow, my 1000th post here at That's Right! Actually, that happened on Monday and I missed it...

Thanks for all of your support, comments and feedback!

In an effort to stay true to my first post back in July of 2004, here's to the next 1000!

And while I love getting emails regarding the posts, please share your thoughts and comments with everyone in the comment section.

Peace and thanks for reading!

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HMK

Up The Downturn Starts Now!

"Go ahead. Cut your marketing budget when things get tough.

I get it.

That's like saying: 'I’ll throw some logs on that fire when it warms up in here." Chris Lochhead

Up the downturn: How to survive in tough economic times.

Christopher Lochhead, the former chief marketing officer at Scient and Mercury, offers his advice on how companies can do more than pray for survival in a prolonged economic downturn.

It's easy to be great when things are going great. The real test of leadership is who are you when things are tough. Leaders take market share in bad times, and losers lose share, money, and market cap.

We seem to be heading into a multi-quarter (or maybe longer) downturn. Planning for a long downturn is the right approach, even if you think this is just a blip.

Strategy 1: Don't Cut The Budget.

The first thing scared executives do in bad times is cut spending. It's easy. But often completely wrong. J. Paul Getty said, "Buy when everyone is selling. And hold until everyone is buying."

Downturns are time to invest in:

New Technology
New Marketing Campaigns
New People (hire the best salespeople, product developers, etc. from your competitors, especially those doing layoffs and missing their quarterly numbers)
New Products
New Companies (buy or start some)

Head on over to CNET. For the details on Strategy 2: If you have to cut, DO IT FAST. DO IT ONCE. and Strategy 3: Put Your Best People On Your Biggest Project.

Sounds like great news if you're one of the best at what you do and lucky enogh to have a smart employer that recognizes you as an asset.

After almost twenty years in business and being the marketing chief at three public companies, Christopher Lochhead retired at 38. Now, he serves on a few boards and is a part-time strategy advisor. Every year he gives a handful of speeches, and from time to time writes something. Check out Lochhead.com

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HMK


Oh, and a great big thank you to Walter Goldstein for the funny cartoon - I found it while breezing through the above book last night.

Rumpus Rather Than Ruckus

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to That's Right Post number 1000!

*True story. I found this awesome example of recommended verbaige filed under Americanisms in the Style Guide guide they give to every journalists at The Economist.

Rumpus Rather Than Ruckus.

Man, just reading that makes me feel smarter! In all seriousness, if you're really and truly serious about communicating in our groovy new modern World, this style guide is full of some amazingly important tools for doing exactly that.

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HMK

*Thanks again to one of my favorite blogstars, the amazingly fresh and always hip: Swiss Miss and a grande muchos gracias to Ian Millar for the excellent Holland Rumpus shot - nice lighting man.

Vanity Fair Type: 1930 Style

Imaginary Interviews by Miguel Covarrubias, from December 1931 issue.

In 1929, Vanity Fair magazine, the jewel in the crown of Condé Nast’s publishing empire, made typographic history. Influenced by Modern design trends throughout Europe, especially the Bauhaus, art director Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha introduced Paul Renner's Futura — and also did away with all capital letters in headlines on columns and feature articles.

The result was at once jarring and elegant — illustrating the capital M of Modernism, through the sole use of lowercase letters. It was also an indication that Frank Crownishield (then editor of Vanity Fair), a highly respected literary figure and social bon vivant, and Mr. Nast, one of the most powerful men in mainstream publishing, trusted their Ukraine-born art director enough to let him challenge convention.

Read the entire Stephen Heller article Vanity Fair Type: 1930 Style and once again, thanks to the wicked smart folks over at Design Observer.
Vanity Fair Type: 1930 Style

Redbone Guitar Boutique Grand Opening!

Guitar Hero? What? Are you kidding me?

Introducing the real guitar hero - Redbone!

Yes! The Redbone Guitar Boutique Grand Opening is happening right now! An awesome new source for all the left-handed guitar players out there looking for anything custom made, pristine vintage or wicked fresh from the factory - and yeah, there's plenty for us right-handed folks as well!

Photos are coming soon!

Sweet! I can walk there from my house!

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HMK

Guitars & Graphics

Over a Century of guitar music and graphic design, when, if ever, do the two combine?

This is an adaptation of a talk given on June 8th by Michael Johnson from Johnson Banks Design.

He admits that this is a slightly selfish theme for a talk; during the day Mr. Johnson is a graphic designer but at lunchtimes and night he's an amateur guitarist. And in a way, he believes the two things rarely come together. So he thought it would be interesting to take the last century of graphics and guitar music and see if, or when, the two things ever do combine.


The earliest blues guitarists used small, parlour sized acoustic guitars, and often tried to play in a way that emulated the popular piano style of the time, ragtime. Gradually blues guitar developed as a style in its own right, and the earliest guitar heroes were born such as Robert Johnson.

Legend has it that he popped out for a few beers but ended up selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads and received the ‘gift’ of the blues in return.


At the turn of the century decorative design was a long way from beer and crossroads, having carried over the decorative styles of the Art and Crafts and the Viennese Secession. Illustrators such as Aubrey Beardsley and artists such as the Beggarstaff Brothers were the design poster-boys of the day (although no-one called them graphic designers, not yet).



What they were listening to as they pushed around their wood type is much harder to ascertain (although it seems that there is a link between Gropius and Mahler, the former having once had an affair with the latter’s estranged wife). Wagner of course was one of Hitler’s musical favourites (he loved to use it at rallies) and became the spur for some of the finest, earliest ‘agit’ work by John Heartfield, protesting against the Nazi dictator’s rule.

Continue reading: Guitars & Graphics.

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HMK

Sitting Pretty

The Stitch Chair from Italy. It folds!

DIg it: Cappellini

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HMK

Thanks to Design Milk.

Micro Casa

I'm always interested in experiencing space saving concepts in person and I'd really love to take a tour of this ultra-compact stairwell dwelling completed in France by H2O Architects back in June of 2007.

Originally designed and built for a lucky teenager, the 12 sqm. house comes complete with four split-levels and is truly an exercise in extreme storage solutions.

Genius. More Info and images: H2O Architectes.

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HMK

Thanks to Squee.Gee over at Core 77.

Who's Watching the Watchmen?

I am! I can't wait for this to come out next year - March 6th to be exact!

Above: Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach.

Dig the amazing trailer! Watchmen.

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HMK

Why America is F*#@ed...

Just one of the reasons why America is F*#@^ed, graphically anyway...

From The forthcoming Draplin Project.

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HMK

New York Times iPhone GUI

I'm really digging fellow Texas designer Felix Stockwell's simple 2D black and white icons for the new (and free!) New York Times iPhone App.


Take a peek inside some of the process and evolution of the super nice 29x29 pixel iconography created for the NYT GUI.

Mr. Stockwell collaborated with renowned web wizard Khoi Vinh and designer Caryn Tutino.

Very nice!

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HMK

Staircase In A Box

Made in Italy, this beechwood and steel staircase from Systema comes in a box ready to assemble with simple tools.

The Modula, pictured above, is a modular staircase solution that allows you to configure and order what you need for your specific situation.


They've also got some pretty sweet options for Spiral Staircases, like the Combi as well as Loft Ladders: Systema.

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HMK

Thanks to The Contemporist.

Open For Breakfast

This cracked me up. Created and concieved by Leo Burnett Chicago, this huge egg billboard for McDonald's opens up between 6am and 10.30am, the only time that eggs are on the menu at McDonalds.

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HMK

Thanks to Ad Hunt.

Notes on Ralph, Martha, and Turning 21

Mmmmm.. Chocolate Chunk Cookies...

We are moving towards active participation, collaboration and control of actions and experiences that enable us to realize our desires.

More: Notes.

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HMK

Thanks again to Collapsing Dominant and Design Observer.

The Crescendo C2

The Stilvoll website describes the Crescendo C2 table as enduring, useful and unique.

Judging from both the site and the photos, I'd have to agree. Combining work with desire, the German Crescendo C2 uses the natural aesthetic variety of the wood as a key style characteristic.

Handcrafted from a solid piece of wood, each Crescendo C2 is a modern interpretation of the term “desk.“ Some call it “desk,“ others “a piece of furniture to fall in love with.” We call it Crescendo C2.

Practical use and ergonomic variability are implemented traditionally in an unobstrusive and unique way. An integrated cable duct with shelves, the variable vertical adjustment or the innovative inclination mechanism are organic components of the design and remain invisible.

I want one.

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HMK

Thanks again to Swiss Miss.

The Zig Zag Table

Very nice pieces from 66 Degrees.

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Thanks to Design Milk.

Beer Ads From Old Newspapers

Grab yourself a cold frosty one and enjoy this nice collection of Beer Ads From Old Newspapers thanks to N.Poell.

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HMK

Watchmen Trailer

Sweet! Watchmen is really coming and the trailer is up and live on iTunes Trailers.

Really, really digging the visuals but not totally sure what's up with the music selection for the trailer.

What is up with using the Smashing Pumpkins, a band that formed in 1988, three years after the setting of the novel?

And more specifically the actual song, "The End Is the Beginning Is the End”. WTF? As Rebecca Cullers from Ad Freak reminds us, this song was originally written about Batman for the movie Batman and Robin. Did they think comic-book geeks wouldn’t notice something like that? I understand this first Watchmen trailer is premiering with the opening of "The Black Knight", but the music seems to lump this in with all the other super hero movies and Watchmen is anything but!

Fortunately, they've still got 6 months or so to hopefully get back to the soul of the original book using the more poignant and less forgettable songs of by the likes of Dylan and Elvis Costello...

UPDATE: This is encouraging news from Entertainment Weekly:

"Based on footage Snyder screened for EW, at least, the work seems to have been worth it. Multiple scenes—the Comedian’s murder, Rorschach’s introduction, Dr. Manhat tan’s origin, and a title sequence that flies through the history of Watchmen America, set to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”—suggest a film that may capture more of Watchmen than anyone thought possible. Sure, there have been changes. But Snyder’s film clearly seeks to emulate the comic. The Gunga Diner, the “Who Watches the Watchmen?” graffiti, the blood-splashed smiley-face button evoking a doomsday clock—it’s all there."

Awesome. And if that's not enough Watchmen news for you, then dig this: Wow!

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HMK

Searching The Galaxy

Dig the awesome Tag Galaxy, a German site with a spacey, 3D planetary interface dedicated to search Flickr images in an completely different and fun way.

This is just one of 13 lesser know, content specific search engines featured over at Smashing Apps. Each search engine listed has some interesting and different ways of searching or unusual presentation.

A few others worth noting are FindSounds.com, a free site for finding sound effects and musical instrument samples, and the aptly titled PDF Search Engine, a book search engine that gleans sites, forums and message boards for pdf files. Perfect for finding and downloading e-books.

Check out all 13 from the smart folks over at Smashing Apps.

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HMK

Thanks to .

Smart Billboard

Agency: Jung von Matt, Zurich
Art Director: Hisham Kharma
Copywriter: Sergio Penzo

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HMK

Thanks to Freddie.

Don't Wash Me!

Check out Scott Wade's amazing: Dirty Car Art Gallery.

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HMK

Thanks to the cool cats at LinkDump.