iainclaridge.net

It would appear that my blog is occasionally crashing safari - this is something I am looking into and will hopefully have sorted soon. In the meantime apologies to all you safari users - maybe you wouldn’t mind browsing in one of the less buggy browsers such as firefox. opera is also nice and now my current browser of choice for surfing - though sticking to firefox for my development work.

“what about Internet explorer?” i hear you say - now that would just be silly…!

Oh… and should anyone have any clues as to why I am having this problem, your advice would be most welcome.

+ download firefox
+ download opera

I have just finished work on a new flash website for Bristol based post production house Doghouse.

A full case study will appear on my studio site soon but in the meantime you can visit the site at www.doghousepost.tv.

+ www.doghousepost.tv

Take some magazine cuttings, a gluestick and a laterally thinking mind and you too can come up with splendidly funny creations such as these homemade postcards from Jon.

+ postcards I have made

Art at Swiss Re welcomes you to discover unexpected gems of contemporary art in a virtual tour that covers two decades of art collecting at Swiss Re.

+ www.artatswissre.com

Got to get myself one of these badboys.

I love the utilitarian looks of this motor scooter - the Honda Zoomer.

+ Zoomerzine

Check out the work of Bruno Sebastia.

Beautiful photography wrapped up in a smooth flash interface.

+ Bruno Sebastia’s site

Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over limidity, of the appetite for adventure over love of ease. Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years; people Years wrinkle away the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self distrust, fear and despair - these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. Whether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things and thoughts, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what’s next, and the joy and the game of life. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair. So long as your hearts receives messages of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young. When the wires are all down and all the central place of your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then you are grown old indeed and may g-d have mercy on your soul.

-Anonymous

Just helped out a mate (CSS guru Rick Hurst) with the visual design of DFR Skatezine.

Rick is a Netsight colleague of mine and as an active “Middle Aged Shredder”, this is one personal project that is very close to his heart!

+ DFR Skatezine

Taken from metropolismag.com.

Dieter Rams: “I have distilled the essentials of my design philosophy into ten points. But these points cannot be set in stone because just as technology and culture are constantly developing, so are ideas about good design.”

1. Good design is innovative.
Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology and can never be an end in itself. When designing the shelving system, I had the idea that it should be like a good English butler. It should be there when you need it but be in the background when you don’t.

2. Good design makes a product useful.
A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of the product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

3. Good design is aesthetic.
The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

4. Good design makes a product understandable.
It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

5. Good design is honest.
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful, or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

6. Good design 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.

7. Good design 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. I live with the shelving system. It’s the only way I can improve it. I’m proud when I get letters from users who say they bought system in 1962 and were able to add elements to it as their needs grew and changed.

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Nothing must be arbitrary. Care and accuracy in the design process shows respect toward the consumer.

9. Good design 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 life cycle of the product. A few years ago I had the crazy idea that gas stations should not only be places to buy gas but locations where you could return goods for recycling. Companies have the technology; the problem is finding ways for users to be able to return a product at the end of its life.

10. Good design is as little design as possible.
Less but better–because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with inessentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity!

More on Dieter Rams here.

A gallery of his work featured in Wallpaper here.