I still remember when I moved away to college and, for the first time in my life, I was in charge of choosing my own shampoo. It was a purchase decision I had never thought about (or cared about, for that matter) and I didn’t have a clue where to
Read more
There’s an old saying in industrial design (the field of engineering where designers make day-to-day stuff, like potato peelers and hedge trimmers): “form follows function.” This basic idea suggests that the design of stuff should be built around precisely what it is used for and how people use it. Chairs,
Read more
Don’t ever design blue text on a red background. Ever. And don’t put green on red, either. If the image below doesn’t give you reason enough not to, I don’t know what will. A visual phenomenon, called chromostereopsis, makes our eyes want to turn a 2D image into something 3D.
Read more
Document design theories these days (whether from experts or novices) seem to have a running theme: keep it simple and keep it clean. Steve Jobs made a career out of this idea, literally living by the old adage coined by the master Leonardo Da Vinci: “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Read more
Dear Women, I need your help. I need to know if it is ethical for me to get my daily news from national media news outlets like CNN and Fox News when they use images that openly objectify and degrade women to sell their content. Please allow me quickly to
Read more
Have you ever looked at a paper that your teacher handed you back, with her scribbles in red ink all over the page asking you to revise, and you didn’t have a clue what she meant? You’re seeing brackets and squigglies and letters with circles around them–it’s obvious she has a
Read more
If you’ve ever wanted a quick glimpse into some of the statistics about the world’s most impressive structures, check out this cool little infographic by Westerman’s International: Are you remodeling your home? Then check out this post on increasing its value!
Read more
On Halloween, we frequently seek the mysterious, the spooky, and even the gruesome. Sculptors around the globe have an awesome ability to creatively capture such emotion-provoking scenarios. For this holiday of fright, mystery, and intrigue, I looked around for some of the most amazing (and spooky) sculptures. This is what
Read more
Regardless of race, ethnicity, or cultural upbringing, did you know that all human beings contract the same muscles in the face for seven different emotions? In other words, angry people in Japan have the same facial expressions as angry people in Iceland, Madagascar, or Canada. And the same is true for
Read more
I recently taught a class entitled “Information Design in Society,” where we talk about the design of public spaces. In the course, we address typography, signage, wayfinding, architecture, colors, and emotional reactions to objects and areas. On multiple occasions during the semester, students brought up Target and Walmart as examples (apparently
Read more