Just stumbled upon this: an example of a delightful 404 page on – where else – A List Apart. Check out Zappos for another great example.

Whenever I find some wood-type blocks on sale as shabby-chic objet d’arts my heart breaks a little at thought of a mountain of type trays upended and their contents gathering dust in loft apartments up and down the country, never to see ink or paper again. It’s a similar heartbreak one would have when presented with a stuffed animal trophy.

Thankfully two fine gentlemen – Matt Braun and Matt Griffin – have recently undertaken the noble cause of finding rare wood type fonts and digitising them for modern use. Admittedly the fonts they are acquiring are probably not in any immediate risk of appearing on someone’s console table anytime soon, but they all deserve some time to shine and be utilised.

Read more about their project at woodtyperevival.com

Google Apps Drops Support for IE7

As announced by Venkat Panchapakesan over at the Google Enterprise Blog, Google plans to discontinue support for older browsers using Google Apps. The older browsers in question would be Firefox 3.5, Safari 3 and – notably – IE7. Does this, along with Microsoft’s recent call to abandon their own IE6, mean we can finally sunset IE6 and 7? And so the wheels of progress continue to turn.

Of interest: you have to love anyone who can squeeze “don’t have the chops” into a public announcement.

Just yesterday I was asked for some words of advice to pass onto a recent graduate in a kind of friend-of-a-friend-of-a-cousin-of-the-postman scenario. When I queried his background it turned out he is a fine art graduate. Fresh out of uni and without work experience, he isn’t sure what he wants to do next, but fundamentally loves to draw and would like to make a living out of it. As luck would have it, that description would have applied just as equally to me some 10 years ago, so I felt compelled to pass on the kind of advice that would have benefitted me a decade ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Jonny Wan is a UK based illustrator with a thoroughly distinctive style. His ‘Progression’ series slays, as the kids apparently say these days Read the rest of this entry »

Relay League Issue 2

We’re happy to announce the second issue of The Relay League is now up and live! If the growing trend of mega cities and mass urbanisation in China is of interest to you, check out this interview with Adrian Hornsby, co-author of The Chinese Dream.

Scanner Test

Currently we’re working on a project which incorporates abstracted imagery for an office space. To keep within the budget, we attempted to simulate a slit-scan photograph in photoshop. Unhappy with the results, we resorted to some creative thinking. The image above is purely a test, but the effects are interesting. To stretch the image, we moved photos around the scanner whilst it was still scanning.

Chain of Printers

Then i discovered a really clever technique to stylise an image using some old school technology. Each of the colours in this book by Xavier Antin were printed on a different era of desktop printers. The ghosting effect is an usual way to abstract an image; we may need to do some experiments! Check out more images from his book here.

Multiple Print Technique

Octopus Chair

During my usual blog trawling I came across this very unusual chair featured on Apartment Therapy. Its not often that I find animal inspired furniture which doesn’t remind me  of those odd glass-topped dolphin tables that were common a couple of decades ago. This piece, on the other hand, is really kooky but at the same time feels rather sophisticated.

Octopus Chair 2

Its kinda creepy but I think that’s why I like it. It was created by Spanish artist Maximo Riera. To view his other work, click here.

Sean Freeman Typography 1

I recently visited Sean Freeman’s portfolio site for the first time which, in itself, is a nice piece of web design. Its very clean, nicely laid out and has creative yet simple navigation – not to mention its filled with images of his remarkable work. The tactility of his typography and illustrations are genius and truly inspiring.

Sean Freeman Cream

Sean Freeman Typography 2

Check out his work here.

IE Tags 1

This image has been making its rounds in the blogsphere lately, but
only now have we realised why this is such a cool product.
Read the rest of this entry »