I’m not against improved tools and ease of use – indeed, I’m a very content Apple user – but the last thing the web needs is another WYSIWYG editor that obfuscates HTML. As it stands, Muse does seem to spit out some reasonably clean and standards compliant code, so it at least seems a step forwards compared to Dreamweaver. And it does seem to contain a suite of useful tools (the site planning section has definitely piqued my interest). However the markup it generates is horribly non-semantic and the stylesheets are ludicrously unmanageable. For a more in-depth look at some of the technical failings of Muse go check out Elliot Jay Stock’s excellent review.

I’m going to skip the dissection on Muse’s shortcomings – Elliot has picked it apart very well. As it stands, Muse could still develop into a dominant position as the premier web design tool, in much the same way that InDesign – deservedly – rose up from the ranks to hold the top spot. So my issue is not so much the app itself, it’s Adobe’s assertion that the code should take a back seat to design that rankles.

“Think design, not code”

– From the Adobe Muse webpage

Coding HTML is part of the design process. Ignoring the code to focus on the purely visual is akin to ignoring the structural engineering of a building to focus on the sweeping glass façade. The sooner we stop treating code as a pesky obstacle to be avoided, the sooner we can get on with building a better web. And it is building, with all of its manual, hands-on connotations, not this rarefied notion of design as distinct from the nuts and bolts.

Why should I get my hands dirty?

Here are some reasons: semantics, accessibility, optimisation, responsiveness, compatibility, extensibility. We web designers love to throw these esoteric words around like we’re at a dinner party at Hogwarts, but that’s not to take away from their importance. These concepts are part of the very landscape of the web, and understanding them is vital. If you choose to ignore these then you can at best hope to be a web decorator, not a designer.

But it’s a great way to learn how to code!

This seemed to be a reoccurring argument, that Muse would provide time-starved designers with a gentle slope into web design. Do we think of a microwave as shortcut to learning how to cook? No. Learning to cook is how you learn to cook. I have never met a designer who isn’t short on time, so putting a tool in front of them that promises to remove the need to actually learn something will mean that they will probably never get around to learning.

Learn, or learn not.

The irony is that HTML and CSS is not that hard to learn, and the time (not to mention money) invested in getting to grips with Muse could well be spent getting acquainted with HTML. Understanding the medium you are designing for makes for better designer, in the same way that understanding the print process makes for a better print designer. And if you don’t want to concern yourself with HTML that’s fine, just find someone who is au fait with it and collaborate with them early on in the design process.

Predicting the future

When InDesign first came out it seemed unlikely that it could ever compete with the entrenched dominance held by Quark. By version 3.00/CS 1 it was already gaining position and now with CS6 out in the wild Quark is starting to feel like a poor Indesign copy. Muse will no doubt go through its awkward adolescent years before suddenly finding itself and confidently asserting itself much like it’s older siblings. And perhaps in 12 months time I’ll find myself happily using it to build sites. But I won’t ignore the code, and I won’t hide from it, and neither should anyone else. Go forth, get your hands dirty, and enjoy it.

Go code.

Christian Stoll’s recent photographs of General Electric’s GE-90 – the world’s bigest aircraft engine – are stunningly beautiful. Shot in variously locations for a print campaign led by Atmosphere/BBDO, they transform these massive forms into intricate studies of light and colour. If they ever get released as limited edition prints I already have a space on my wall waiting for them.

- Via Visuelle

Not all design needs to be about creating attention grabbing campaigns for huge corporate brands. Good design lies in the almost invisible; small, subtle details that are noticed only when they are absent. Susan Kare’s seminal work for Apple shows that sometimes design’s goal should be to simply make things easier. To learn more about her work be sure to check out Steve Silberman’s piece over at PLoS Blogs.

- Via Jared Erickson & kotte.org

This is simply amazing; to jazz up their shop windows, German design studio Britpetermann created a series of interactive installations that respond to passer-bys. Constructed out of a Kinect, a projector an Arduino servo and lot’s of magical custom rendering and frameworks, the end result is equal parts impressive and playful.

- Via The Fox Is Black

I’ve always been much enamoured with marbled patterns; they are firmly fixed in my mind as end papers for family encyclopedias, circa 1982. My first – and only attempt – at marbling was crafting my own end papers for a book binding project in school when I was 10. Evidently it was an interest in theory if not practise.Thankfully the art of marbling has not been left to my lacklustre efforts, as can be seen in recent work by professional marbling artist Jemma Lewis. Working with Manchester agency Music, Jemma produced a beautiful series of prints to – fittingly – promote the Leeds Print Festival.

While haunting a discount bookstore, I happened upon a guide to Sumingashi – a distinctly Japanese style of marbling as used to great effect by Demain Conrad Design for interior design company Almighty. Time to get the plastic trays out.

- Via designworklife

We stumbled upon Mappix whilst perusing the mightily impressive portfolio of designer and developer Philipp Oehrlein. The premise is as simple as “one random google maps image a day. That’s it.” As modest as this sounds, it is a surprisingly engaging affair; removing the familiar controls turns the google maps experience into a kind of geographical roulette.

Without the familiar demarcations of borders, roads or any other labels it distils the images to pure topography, stripping away contextualising clues.
This particular shot eschews any indication of scale – it could as well be a slide of some grains of sand. Such images conjure up Baudrillardian ruminations on the nature of maps vs. territories, whilst reinstating the joy of simply looking at the sheer diversity of the earth on a purely visual scale.

… avoiding the cold by curling up on the sofa and watching films all ‘based on true stories’…

… starting with the darkly gripping (but factually questionable) The Last King of Scotland…

… then moving onto the equally sordid City of God…

… before finally taking a respite from all the gritty solemness with The King’s Speech…

LMA favourite Jonny Wan has recently updated his website and added some new work, including this illustration for Russian magazine Sekret Firmy. I’m not entirely sure what Sekret Firmy is about (it is in Russian after all) but a sneaky peek at their flickr page reveals that they do like themselves some purdy illustrations and tasty layouts.

- Via Supersonic Electronic

In between capturing footage of big mountain legend Xavier de la Rue demonstrating the suave levels of bad-assery that we mere mortals shall never possess, freeride filmmaker Guido Perrini managed to turn his lens away long enough to capture some beautiful timelapse footage of the mountains. This bonus footage comes as part of The Timeline Missions; a series of short films following Xavier around the world as he looks for more ways to make the rest of us feel very, very small.

Be sure to check out Guido Perrini’s documentary Ten. At times sombre, it looks behind the scenes at freeride film making, and reveals it to be a world that is part-expedition, part-photoshoot, and filled with equal parts thrills and dangers.

Deutsche Bank / Media Wall / In-Situ from FIELD on Vimeo.

The more astute readers may have noticed that we’re on something of a video art binge at the moment, and it shows no sign of ending anytime soon.

For its brand new building in Hong Kong, Deutsche Bank wanted a dramatic artwork to fit their shiny new foyer. They turned to digital auteur, Matt Pyke of Universal Everything. Working with London based digital art studio FIELD, they created a stunning 12 metre long video wall to display eight dynamic motion artworks by several artists. Amazingly, each video is generated in realtime, so that each viewing remains subtly unique. In order to achieve this technical feat, the wall required a bespoke system of eight networked computers in order to output the generated video works. You can see more of the wall, as well as a short documentary on it’s creation over at FIELD’s Vimeo page.

FIELD also recently produced the video for the single Ariel, by Stateless, out now on Ninja Tune. They will be holding a screening at the Animateka Animation Festival in Slovenia on the 9th of December.

-Via Visuelle