The Graphic Below Says it All.

Click here. I couldn't stop crying/laughing/crying/laughing.

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Great Sayings That Every Designer Can Relate To

My fellow creatives, prepare to cry.

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Google Pages: Make Your Own Dynamic Web Site

Well, the boys over at Google are at it again. Introducing Google Pages. Using your gmail account to log in, you get a relatively nifty web page creator and 100MB of web space. Really not bad for a web-based application. You need at least Firefox 1.5 (Mac and Windows) or Internet Explorer (Windows) to run it.

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The Cell Phone Symphony

This is the cell phone symphony (Quicktime required). SOOOOOooooo funny. You can read the article written by one of the organizers from Improv Everywhere.

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Remi watching the Backyardigans

Remi watching the Backyardigans
Originally uploaded by mrosal.

If you haven't seen Nickelodeon's Backyardigans, you're missing a great kids' show. It's a 3D animated television show that features five young characters who use their imaginations to dream up and act out stories in their backyard.

Their music is wonderful and their dancing is a great example of what can happen when you pair good animation with great choreography. The whole show seems to work well together. It must be a great show to work on.

Oh, and Remi loves it, too.

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First Nike, Then Reebok, Now Converse

Well, now it seems you can design your own Converse Chuck Taylors just like you can various Reebocks and Nike's. My favorites are the slip-on Chucks.

It looks and functions a lot more like the Nike ID site than the Reebok version. Don't call it a rip-off of Nike, however. Lest we forget Nike owns Converse now.

My only gripe is that it functions a WHOLE LOT S L O W E R than the Nike ID site. RG/A did the Nike ID site. I wonder if they did this one?

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Remi and Mommy (b&w)

Remi and Mommy (b&w)
Originally uploaded by mrosal.

I just got an EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. It's a really great lens for portraits. You get great depth of field and the bokeh (a.k.a. background blur) is nice and smooth. My goal over the next few months: To get enough freelance work to afford the EF 24mm f/1.4L USM. What a geek I am.

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Sopranos/Google Map Coming Feb. 27

For those of you who can't wait for the 2006 season of The Sopranos...

Courtesy of AdAge.com:
“The Google thing, we are really excited about,” said Courtney Monroe, senior VP-advertising, HBO. “It is a geo-visual tour of the TV series, a very interactive way to get people caught up. We love doing things that haven’t been done before, and the notion of super-imposing fictional events of the show on to real-life locations gave us a huge kick.” Ian Schafer, CEO of New York-based Deep Focus, the maps will go live Feb. 27.

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Magnifico's Ice Cream

Magnifico's Ice Cream
Originally uploaded by mrosal.

I've begun using Flickr more. So, I'll start posting my own photography here and there. Let me know what you think.

Here's Magnifico's Ice Cream in East Brunswick, NJ. My dear friend Nicole and her father own the shop. It's the best soft ice cream in the state.

UPDATE October 31, 2008
I just finished the design and photography for the new Magnifico's website magnificosicecream.com. Enjoy!

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The Future Apple iPod Interface?

According to worldofapple.com Apple Computer owns some really fascinating touch-screen patents that could find its way into upcoming iPods. Here's the original NYU link that it references.

The video is a long download but A MUST-SEE. Quicktime required.

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Learning from Ed BenguiatClass Notes Part 1

Note This semester I'm taking "Making Type Talk" with the legendary Ed Benguiat as my instructor. I'll post some of my notes here in this blog as the weeks go along. Unfortunately, there isn't enough space for all the notes and anecdotes for the semester-long, three-hour class. Enjoy!

The class is excellent. It really is a lot of fun if you're the kind of person who loves type. And the stories he tells are worth the price of the class alone. He told us a story about how he used to be in a jazz troupe. He used to play on 52nd street in Birdland. He also traveled & performed with his group. Somehow (and I don't remember the exact route of the story) he ended up on a chain gang b/c something about him being white performing with black musicians in some nightclub in the south! I wish I remembered the story exactly. I took extensive notes all night, but some of the stories are so intriguing that I just stop to listen.

Well, anyway, to make a long story longer... My wife asked how class was. I told her about how one of our assignments is to properly space the following words in Helvetica Roman, roughly 144 pt type (he says three fingers high), all caps, one word above each other:

AMERICAN
AIRLINES
AROUND

It had to do with the in-class lecture. He said it should take us about an hour to two hours to finish. My wife asked, why should it take so long for something so simple. And as the week wore on, more people asked the same thing and why we should care as long as it's readable. I struggled to explain the importance of such seemingly minute details.

Well, it turns out the answer can be told in Ed's own metaphor. Keying into his love for music, he said, "Music is arranging sounds in the proper order to make it pleasing to the ear." I suppose anybody can read a sheet of music and play it, but it takes a trained and/or gifted musician to make the music come to life. Likewise, we design with type and words so they appear pleasing to the eye. And it takes the same type of craftmanship to make type come to life.

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Yahoo Home Page (Beta)

Flickr user msgraph has posted a screen capture of the beta Yahoo home page.

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Windows Vista to be Released December 1, 2006?

The blogger over at teezeh.info has figured out that the next version of Windows will most likely release December 1 or November 30 of this year. Should be interesting.

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And the Swiss Banknote Design Winner Is...

The first prize in the Swiss National Bank banknote design competition is Krebs Manuel of Zurich. Click here and here for closer views.

The runners up are quite stunning as well.

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3D Paintings

These 3D paintings are fun. They kinda flatten out if you stand in the right spot.

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Great animation from France

Beautiful animation from ClickClak. It's a long download, but definitely worth it.

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This Sunday's Super Bowl XL Ads

Courtesy of Advertising Age...

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