graphic design, art, typography and architecture

Smashing Magazine has compiled another one of it's great "Best Of..." lists. This time it's 45 Excellent Blog Designs. And, as usual it's a great source of inspiration. A couple of my favourites are in there, including Shaun Inman's. If Blogs could be eaten, then you'd want his for dinner. Wonderful use of white (orange in his case) or negative space, perfect layout, great typography, and attention to even the smallest of details. This Smashing Magazine Post is definitely one to Bookmark. [more]

Regular readers will know that I'm quite a big fan of typography. I'm often tempted to post more about typography on this blog, even posting images of typography that I photograph regularly. But then I had a brain wave (well, not a brain wave, really--just an obvious idea): post all the typography-geek stuff on a blog devoted to the topic. So off I rushed and bought myself ilovetypography.com. I've been working on a WordPress theme for some time. I've always like the Grid Focus theme which I've modified for this very blog, and I had started developing my own to replace ... [more]

Creative Fix will be a regular round-up feature. I'll be listing and commenting on my favourite blog posts, stumbles and bookmarks. Here's my Creative Fix for June 2007: Website that caught my eye: This is a beautifully designed Flash web site; this kind of thing has been done a lot before, but this one is particularly worthy of mention: Architecture: LandMark Houses, an Architectural Housing Project set in the Cotswolds (UK). A complete showpiece village of landmark new homes by some of the best architects in Britain, and the world, is about to be built in the Cotswolds.--The Sunday Times Typography: 15 Years of Type for ... [more]

This is a beautifully designed and entertaining Flash web site. Need a quick break from work - Get The Glass. Meet the Adachi family; a Family trying to overcome a staggering predicament: life without milk! The game is a very simple board-game, but the animation is stunning. [more]

When I come across something on-line that really grabs my attention, I make a note of it with Google Notebook -- I almost feel embarrassed to "promote" a Google product, but it really has helped me to keep track of and organise my web likes. I began using it after one day scrolling through -- for what seemed like an eternity -- my Bookmarks; kind of defeated the whole purpose. My bookmarks list had become so big, that even after adding a few more folders, taking out the trash and reorganising, it was still too big and cumbersome to be of ... [more]

The winners of the prestigious D&AD Global Design Awards have been announced. Here are a couple of the winners. Nike+ by R/GA in the (oddly named) New Users of Websites Category (Black Pencil) Fukutaka House by Flame Inc. in the Typography Category (Yellow Pencil) Images Courtesy of D&AD For the full list of winners and nominations, visit the D&AD web site. For information on who won what and why, visit the Creative Review Blog. [more]

On the whole, I find browsing the web a pleasurable experience. However, there are times when the 'arghhhhh!" factor is take off the scale. None of the things in my list is life-threatening but, boy can they be annoying. Here are mine: 1. Illegible captchas. I have nothing against these little fellows; they are a necessary evil. However, when you have to squint and strain your eyes to decipher the alphanumeric conundrum - is that an "e" or a "c", a "2" or a "z", a capital or lower-case "s". arghhhhh! factor 9/10 (I have a suspicion that illegible captchas ... [more]

This post is the passionate offspring of a discussion that began over at David Airey's site. In reviewing a site, he wrote (almost in passing, I think), that he wasn't keen on the site's fluid* layout. As the comments to his post became more impassioned, I thought it was time to write something on the topic. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, a fixed-width web page is just that - fixed; so, for example, this site has a fixed width of 965px; and if you resize your browser window to anything less than 965px ... [more]

Warning: before you take a look at this guy's work [Peter Jaworowski], wrap a thick rubber band around your head (over the head and under the lower jaw) - it will prevent damage to your chin when your jaw hits the floor. Note: Since writing this post, Peter's site has been redesigned. [June 29, 2007] [more]