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Archive for June, 2010

I’m including some vector icons as a part of the new homepage I’m making, and I really like what I’ve made so far. The idea is that the icons that I make will help explain who I am and give a sense of my personality. The objects I’ve chosen are a coffee mug (coffee is paramount to my post-3pm ability to think), a pair of glasses (I love my glasses, as they allow me to see things far away), a push pin (I have more than 150 of them at use in my room. I use mid-century colors in all of them because I like their ability to be understated yet stylish. This great palette I found over at Wanken was a very useful reference:

Here’s a decent documentation of the pic-to-icon process:

Posted in Design | 3 Comments »

Old Faves, #2

(June 24th, 2010 by Ian)

Tags: Bologna, Fish Sticks, Kids, Kung Fu
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Werewolves

(June 23rd, 2010 by Ian)

Tags: Twilight is Dumb, Werewolves
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Typewriters (Part 2 of Almost Definitely 2)

(June 21st, 2010 by Ian)

I have been working some with a homepage design lately, and my typewriter contributes much to my design. The typewriter in question is a Smith-Corona Corsair Deluxe. I don’t know exactly when it was made, but a couple of minutes of research put its birthday somewhere in the 1960s. It is a great color aquamarine and when you type it responds with a crisp but soft thacka thacka thacka. I was lucky enough to be gifted it by Lori Emerson who is a professor at the University of Colorado up here in Boulder. Yes, I did make a Twitter logo with it.

I’ll get better at photography someday, I promise. Thanks to roommate Brady for letting me borrow his point-and-shoot.

Tags: Pics, Smith-Corona Corsair Deluxe, Typewriter
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Typewriters (Part 1 of Probably 2)

(June 17th, 2010 by Ian)

My friend Brady recently alerted me to this iPad typewriter device, which plugs into your iPad and lets you type as if you were really using a typewriter. I love the idea, and would love to have one of these things if only for the novelty. This is excluding the fact that it would be a ridiculous thing to spend money on and that I don’t even and probably never will own an iPad. I do own a typewriter (which is probably the subject of part 2) and I think it would be really neat to type with this typewriter-iPad setup and compare the experience. The iPad version would probably be much more user-friendly, just to take a guess. Very cool how it makes the exact noises a real typewriter makes, I’d like to know if the tactile feedback is realistic as well.

Anyway, the reason why I think this is so cool is because I built an online typewriter for a class I had this summer. Both of these projects represent (to me) a valuable intersection between art, communication and technology. You can try out the online typewriter for yourself here. It’s best to use Firefox 3.6 on a Mac with it, although other good browsers will work too (as in, not Internet Explorer). I also haven’t tested it on a PC and I don’t think many of the controls will work on one.

Tags: Projects, Typewriter
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Cristiana Couceiro

(June 14th, 2010 by Ian)

I have been contemplating a homepage design for a while now for a couple of reasons:

I want a good-looking homepage that communicates my identity and style.
The current page is only meant to be a placeholder.
I want to flex my design muscles.

But there are reasons why I haven’t made a homepage that I like yet:

I don’t really have any style of my own yet, which is burdensome yet allows me some freedom.
I up until this point have not had the skills to design something that I like.
I don’t know what I like.

However, the remedy to this is the fact that there are lots of people who are infinitely more talented than me and who, to my great fortune, post their portfolios online. One such person is Cristiana Couceiro, who I found through this post on ISO50 (I guess I should probably find some new inspiration sources soon, lots of ISO50 lately). I love her style, especially the mid-century colors that she uses. The black and white pictures she sources bring a sense of the classic to her work, and the way that she incorporates her own geometric imagery is beautiful. Her work is an intersection of design and art that I would like to emulate. I will definitely use her work as an inspiration as I move forward with my own design.

Tags: Cristiana Couceiro, Homepage, Inspiration, ISO50
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Cowboy Hats and Dog Owners

(June 13th, 2010 by Ian)

Tags: Cowboy Hats, Dog Owners
Posted in Charts | 3 Comments »

Music I’m Listening To (The National, The Young Friends, Dusty Brown)

(June 11th, 2010 by Ian)

I’ve really gotten into surf-rock lately, and The Young Friends are a prime example of the genre. They’re a bunch of teens from Arizona and their songs are pretty catchy. You can listen to their whole album, Hella, at SoundCloud.

The Young Friends – Be My Baby:

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Dusty Brown released his latest album for free online over at ISO50, and I very much like it. How’s That is my favorite track that I’ve heard for a long time. It sounds best loud.

Dusty Brown – How’s That:

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I love The National’s latest album, High Violet. Their lead singer Matt Berninger has a great voice and one of my personal heroes, Sufjan Stevens, contributed to the album with vocals for the track Afraid of Everyone.

The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio:

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The Olympics

(June 8th, 2010 by Ian)

Mainly due to the fact that ski-jumping suits are thuggin’.

Tags: Beijing, Olympics, Spandex, Torino, Vancouver
Posted in Charts | 1 Comment »

Montreal Expo 67 Passport

(June 8th, 2010 by Ian)

I was rooting around in my parents’ basement some time ago and I stumbled on my dad’s souvenir passport from the 1967 Universal Exposition, the same one that gave the Montreal Expos their name (now known as the Washington Nationals). I haven’t really had the chance to ask him about his experience there, but after seeing this passport I now consider myself super interested in the 1967 World Expo. Anyway, take a look at this thing. The stamps on it are awesome.