NY Post Website

I don't know about the quality of their news, but man oh man is the NY Post's website ever sexy.  Simple color scheme, clean layout, bold logo.  It looks remarkably alive, and has all the urgency you would expect of a 24/7 online news site based out of New York.  I like the graphic quality of the header; it reminds me of classic comic book fonts, and the minimalist approach is quite nice.

[The crappy articles] are at least, very easy to navigate.

Wet Hands // Bad Designs

Whoever designed this specific brand* of paper towel dispenser should be cursed with permanently wet hands.  They fathered an atrocity.  If you've ever used one, you will know.

Fuck this thing

These damn things always get stuck--they stop feeding out the towels.  To unstuck them you have to try un-jamming it with a small, plastic turn wheel that is inconveniently recessed in the plastic housing of the dispenser.  Most of the time, with your wet fingers and the machine's temperamental feed mechanism, you have no chance of budging it.  Even a person with relatively strong hands and fingers like myself has no chance.  Imagine the fun a person with arthritis must have trying to operate this.

Returning to the design, not only is the savior-wheel awkwardly placed, but it has nothing to firmly grip onto.  But even if it did, the wheel itself is so small--about two inches in diameter--that you have practically zero leverage.  Given that you only use the wheel when paper is stuck, the idea that you're gonna budge a jammed feed mechanism with wet hands, no grip and no leverage is absurd.

Nobody should have to titty-twister a paper towel dispenser, hoping they might actually get one.

When I use these things, I would generously estimate that they work half the time.  Now you might be thinking "it's no big deal--it's just a paper towel...#firstworldproblems."  But however small it is, it's enough to make someone's day just a little bit worse--to fire off some anger neurons.  And if fourty people using a public bathroom grapple with the same jammed dispenser, that adds up.  It's a lot of small disappointments to feed into the collective conscious--for no good reason.

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*It's a "Sanitouch" by Kimberly Clark

Jungle Gothic; SketchUp Pro 8

SketchUp is like Microsoft paint--but in three dimensions.  It's an intuitive 3D drawing program, that's easy to use, and easy to learn.  I downloaded it the other day, hoping to learn sharpen my skills thinking in three dimensions.  This was the product of my second drawing in SketchUp.  It's some kind of citadel or cathedral.  I call it jungle gothic, but that's probably totally inaccurate terminology.  it's a mix of things.   It's probably about 12 hours of work--but much of that time was spent getting better at the program.  

What's nice about SketchUp is that even with only a little experience, I felt like I understood the program enough to get it to do what I want.  Compare this with Adobe Illustrator--I program I've used at least a dozen times--and still don't understand.

So pirate yourself a copy of SketchUp Pro, and learn the program.  If you can model your ideas in 3D, you are ahead of the game.  It's fun.  It's easy.  

 

Dat Ass Tho: Jaguar F-type

The other night, I was walking home from class, when a mystery sports car passed me from behind.  Usually I don't care about cars too much.  Living in La Jolla--a moneyed beachtown--you see expensive cars every day.  Often you see corporate types driving Mercedes, BMWs, Audis or Range Rovers.  They tend to drive like assholes.  Sometimes it's wealthy old couples driving Bentleys and Rolls Royces and the occasional Maybach.  And you'll also get your fair share of young men and women driving edgier sports cars: Porsches, Ferraris, Maseratis.  But given how often I see luxury cars, these cars are a kind of a normal feature in my daily life.

This car, however, was different.  I didn't recognize it, and only caught a glimpse of it from behind,  Even so, I was captivated by the car's remarkable tail lights.  Two glowing red, thing stretched lines across the back, that cupped two circular tail-lights that flashed like mean eyes when the car braked, slowing to turn at the distant intersection.

They were probably the sleekest brake lights I'd ever seen.  They looked fierce, almost like the squinted glare of some predatory animal.  The eye makeup Egyptians wore--which elegantly draws out the length of the eyes--also came to mind.

BMW Z8, with tail light

The Jaguar F-type, staring back at you

Anyways, I send a picture of the drawing I made [of the lights] to my friend, who said he recognized them, but couldn't put a name on it.  Restless, I did some research on my own in Google images, scanning the major luxury car brands until I finally landed on Jaguar.  And there they were--on the back of a car I'd never heard of, the Jaguar F-type.

The Jaguar F-type is a sexy car.  Although the rest of the car doesn't hold the design standard set by the rear of the car, it's a well-balanced, nice looking sports car.  The front of the car is rather standard--almost generic.  I am reminded of Maserati's designs, and some of the lower-end Farrari Models.  

Jaguar F-type, two angles

A Maserati for comparison

Ferarri for comparison

Even so, the F-type is a slick car with a decent price tag, and a nice ass.

Dieter Ram's Watch

Dieter Rams, patron saint of modern industrial design and design philosophy, is someone who I respect tremendously.  You don't see much of his original work these days, but if you've ever owned anything ever built by Apple, and liked it, you are [indirectly] enjoying the legacy of Dieter Rams.  During his time at Braun--the German consumer products company--Rams was responsible for some of the most innovative and beautiful design work of the 20th century.

Tortoiseshell, horn-rimmed glasses.  Design is serious business.  Don't screw around.

Rams' best-known legacy, however, is his design philosophy: the 10 principles of design.  They are a set of clear guidelines as to what good design is, and what it should accomplish.  According to Rams, design is far more than making things look good: it about making high quality products with functionality and clean, timeless beauty.

Every person should know the 10 principles of design.

Good Design:

1. Is innovative - The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself.
2. Makes a product useful - A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic criteria. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.
3. Is aesthetic - The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
4. Makes a product understandable - It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user's intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
5. Is unobtrusive - Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user's self-expression.
6. Is honest - It does not make a product appear more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
7. Is long-lasting - It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today's throwaway society.
8. Is thorough down to the last detail - Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
9. Is environmentally friendly - Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
10. Is as little design as possible - Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

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I've been in the market for a new watch lately.   Actually, I've been looking for a long time, but only recently have I had the money to consider getting one.  For a long time I was looking into the watches made by Uniform Wares.  They're a relatively new company from the UK that is gaining traction with their minimalist designs.  They have slick designs with a youthful edge.  Although I like their designs, I think the watch--in it's hyper-reduced form--is one step too far into 'minimalism,' hindering the watch's functionality and timelessness, rather than adding to it.  

Uniform Wares 100 Series 

I also looked into a watch my uncle has owned for a long time: the Mondaine Swiss Railway Watch.  It comes in a few different variations--all of them about as utilitarian as watches come. Maybe too much so.  The line of watches is based on the clocks found in swiss railroad stations, and it's made to be extremely clean and legible.  But even for me, this is an austere watch.  

Mondaine Swiss Railway Watch

But with Dieter Ram's home team company, Braun, I think I've found what I'm after.  The Braun BN0032 Steel Range is a beautifully-designed watch at a reasonable price.  It retails for $200, but I'm seeing new ones on ebay for $150--which, for serious mens' watches, is a good price.  

For me, this watch is pure design porn.  

With the white bezel and touches of red and yellow on the date window and minute hand, it's a watch that feels airy, modern and upbeat.  Unlike an all-black watch, or a watch with a numberless face, this watch doesn't feel serious or aggressive.  Although it's a touch formal with a metal mesh band, it isn't pretentious or overdressed.  It has a kind of quiet, restrained stylishness, and will probably still look excellent 20 years from now.  It is Dieter Ram's kind of watch. 

Lagom in every respect; yust perfect.  

Now I just need to get one...

The perfect gun

Every now and then I see a gun--online or in popular culture--that make me want to collect guns.  I don't love guns, and even though I've shot a few guns in my life, I'm not 100% convinced of their sporting value.  But as objects d'art, I'm all for guns.  They are, after all, incredibly powerful design objects.  As tools of death, guns command a certain level of attention from everyone that sees them--the same way a car accident keeps rubberneckers focused on the wreck and not the road.  Seeing a gun means seeing a threat.  Before you can even appreciate it aesthetically, it is registering as 'danger' in your animal subconscious.  This is why guns are always interesting to look at.  

On top of this primal--initial reaction, a gun can also trigger any number of secondary reactions in our brains, simply depending on the way it looks.  Just about anyone who sees a gun can place it somewhere in their mental library.  For example--you probably know that revolvers are for cowboys, shotguns are for farmers, rifles are for hunters, uzi's are for gangsters... etc.

This knowledge we have is vague, but present, and allows us to preload a biography and narrative around a gun before we actually know anything about it.  When I, for example, see AK-47's I think of Russia and the Middle-East, insurgencies, the cold war, the desert, and terrorism.  Any odd memory I have surrounding AK-47's contextualizes it

On top of these memory-based associations--these embedded narratives--the physical design of the gun, which carries its own personality, also defines the way we react to it.  Guns can have human traits.  They can be skinny or chubby, clumsy or sophisticated, old or young.  They can look aggressive, normal, or even reserved-looking.

A chubby, awkward gun.  This is a George Costanza

average-looking gun.  Balanced, no ornamentation or
exaggerated forms/features.  This is a Honda civic

neutral-looking gun.  This is a politically-correct gun--the
"passive voice" of machine guns.  'Surgical' and 'abstract'
come to mind

The point is that a gun is a powerful physical object, physically and mentally.  When we see them, we're awed by their presence, and the mental associations--both conscious and subconscious--build stories around them.

   

One gun that I've really grown to love for its design and the 'mental narrative' it holds is the Mauser P08, a gun more commonly known as the luger.  

This was a handgun first produced at the beginning of the 20th century, and used by Germans forces in WWI and WWII.  I think the first time I actually saw this gun was in the Tintin comics I read as a kid.  The bad guys who kept Tintin up tied up in the cargo ship carried guns that looked a lot like lugers.  I always liked the design--even then.  It looked mean.

Mean, but impartial--I can't say exactly what it is about this gun.  It's an incredibly sleek design.  The gun is skinny and minimal--the greyhound of handguns.  It's lines and design speak to its intention.  With an exposed barrel, the gun looks more like a bullet syringe: designed to kill people with cold, surgical, german precision.  

And I thought the luger was it--the best looking gun I'd ever seen.  That was until came across the artillery luger.  It features a longer barrel, which gives it an extremely elegant, raked-out look.  This particular version is the Persian artillery luger, a rare version made by the german arms manufacturer Mauser for the Persian shah, when Iran was still Persia.  According to a site I found:

The most recent Shah of Iran, the last of the Pahlavi Dynasty, ruled from 1925 until the abdication in 1979. This family attempted to modernize Iran, and following WWI and the great depression--was an emerging powerhouse in the world. The influence and technology of the Germans were sought as the Persians aligned themselves with the Germans.

Well the Persians definitely got their money's worth.  It's the single greatest gun I've ever seen.  

Funny too, since in a way, this gun reminds me of Tintin also.  The Tintin books where he travels in the Middle East--I can picture the 'bad guys,' or a gruff-looking Captain Haddock carrying an artillery luger.  This book--for example--which I read as a kid, would be the perfect setting for this gun:

Haddock's probably holding an artillery Luger in this picture

Javier the Steam Engine

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A visual metaphor I devised to describe Javier Bardem's powerful facial structure.
Alternatively: world's sexiest steam engine.  Your pick.

Hughes H-1 Racer

I ran across an image of this plane on Facebook on a "suggested page" post in my newsfeed.  I have a friend in the navy, and either he liked the page, or had friends that did.

In any case, it's a beautifully designed airplane.  I've never been big on airplanes, but this is quite an exception.  Nicknamed the "Silver Bullet," Howard Hughes built the this plane--the H-1 racer--in 1935, in an attempt to set the airspeed record.  He set about designing a highly aerodynamic plane, which led to a number of interesting design features which were new at the time.  This included retractable landing gear, and individually-machined flush-mounted rivets over the body of the plane.  The plane itself had around 1,000 horsepower.

In 2002 a man named Jim Wright built an exact replica of the plane, which is seen in photos above and  below.  It received a lot of attention from the aviation press, and was even slated to be used in the film The Aviator.  But as he was flying home from the air show in Wisconsin where it was unveiled in 2003, the plane's propellor failed, sending Jim into a fatal crash just North of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. 

I can't imagine a more spectacularly beautiful way to die.

Jackson and His Computer Band "Glow"

Excited for Jackson and His Computerband's new album "Glow" to come out on September 2nd of this year.  It is long overdue.  His previous album "Smash" was released all the way back in 2005!  7+ years ago!

September 19th, 2005

I will confess that I only discovered Smash two years ago, and I can remember thinking it was one of the strangest albums I'd ever listened to.  It's mix of whimsical stories, interludes, ballads and bangers.  The tracks are all so different from one another that it took a while to appreciate the collection as a whole. 

At the same time, it also had the feel of a product that is uniquely the product of one man's feverish efforts and imagination.  It's like a beethoven symphony, or a Rodin sculpture.  You have a hard time seeing the work outside of the context of the artist, because the two are so intimately linked.  I read somewhere that he's a classically-trained musician, so it doesn't surprise me.   

Thus, I would probably describe "Smash" as "the electronic music equivalent of a Gorillaz album,"  --dark, lively, diverse and unexpected--the sort of musical game changer that is both rare and refreshing.

September 2nd, 2013

If the cover art is any indicator of quality, it looks like "Glow" is going to be a killer album.  This is one of the darkest, most elegant and austere album covers I've seen come out of EDM.  It radiates musical and artistic genius, and belongs in a gallery.  I'm curious to know who designed it, but I'm sure it will be hard to find out until the album is released.

Mercedes CLS 63 AMG, "The Greyhound"

If I had to drive one car for the rest of my life, I would drive a 2009 Mercedes CLS 63 AMG.

I'll be the first to admit I know very little about cars.  But I know a few things about design and aesthetics, and in my opinion, this car is about as close to design perfection as they come.

Some of the features that that take the CLS to the next level:

• A singular unified shape, defined by a single continuous curve, running the length of the car
• Rather than overly-complex, angular styling, the CLS relies on a few well-chosen curves 
• The arched shape of the body appears to lift and draw out the vehicle, giving the car a naturally aerodynamic and fast appearance
• It isn't ostentatious or aggressive.  Despite its good looks, its design features are still modest by my standards, and it relies more on subtlety than force
• The entire car tapers at both ends.  Small headlights and a tasteful grille dot the long hood of the vehicle.  At the back of the car, a small rounded trunk and shard-like tail lights close the vehicle.

Modest styling from the front that appears to taper to a point

notice the fluting running off the top of the front wheel-well 

With small lights, and a long rounded hood,
the "face" of a CLS instantly conjures the greyhound

the smooth, arched profile of the car is most clear seen from behind

I conclude with a visual metaphor that [I think] explains the styling of the CLS, and in particular, the logic of using an arched profile to define the car.  It is the element that really brings the car to life:

Mercedes CLS 63 AMG [with its trademark arched profile]

Breaching dolphin

Running Greyhound

Sprinting Cheetah

Straight lines do not appear in natures fastest animals.  Only curves.

(all photos belong to their respective owners)