If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
- Reid Hoffman
Was very embarassed by the first version of visually. Must be doing something right.
Inception is one of those movies people theorize about, so here’s my take. I have not read about it or looked it up except to check the characters’ names, so this is based solely on what I got from watching it. Needless to say, tremendous spoilers follow for those who have not seen it.
Click here to see 11 iOS icons made in only CSS, no images whatsoever.
NOTE: This demo will only work correctly on a webkit browser and has only been tested in Safari 5 and Google Chrome 5. Here’s how it will look when rendered correctly.
Update: Apparently, there’s a bad bug in…
At my bar: Espresso in the morning, wine in the evening and iPad whenever.
Nice. My friends keep on making this a reblog kind of day.
This is kinda gorgeous.
Every month, for the last 9 or so years of my life, I’ve sat down for an hour or two and read a chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist, authored and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. Its taken me to a land similar to our own, and I’ve followed the journey of two brothers travelling to find a way to get their bodies back after committing taboo. As they traveled, they touched the lives of the people they met, changing the world little by little. It was a story that inspired me to be the person I hoped I become, and is the fuel behind all of my actions. Why can’t we, as individuals, do our part in changing the world? The answer that this story has taught me is that there is nothing stopping us,. Even if its a very small bit, we can all do our share to make this earth a better place to live on. Who knows where our little efforts will take us?
So on that note, thank you Hiromu Arakawa, for all the lessons you’ve taught me through your story, and for allowing me to go on this wonderful ride with you. I’ve cried, I’ve shouted out with joy, I’ve fumed with anger, and now I will reminisce on the hour or two every month that I could count on to give me inspiration and hope for the future. There is no other story that has touched my heart as much as this one. Thank you.
How could I not post this?
Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 (by Sean Stiegemeier)
This is absolutely gorgeous. I wish real life looked this good.
This has been my easily my toughest year at Carnegie Mellon. There’s been a lot of obstacles and a lot of pressure building, but it’s (mostly) over now, and a lot of hard times and times I wanted to give up.
I’ve worked almost constantly since getting back from winter break, from portfolios, to movies, to applications, and I didn’t succeed on all counts. Far from it. More often than not, I found myself not being able to do something or taking more time than I was given to finish a project and that kind of killed my self-respect a little bit. For a while I went through a rough time of creative block and really couldn’t work. It was hard, but I’m past that now.
I think what I really learned is something that I forgot somewhere down the road. Its quite obvious, but I think it is very important. No matter what it is you’re designing, each design project is a unique problem. No matter how good of a designer you are, the problems will always be hard, but they should also be challenging. We’re designers because we enjoy that challenge, and when that challenge is gone, we’re bored and un-attentive. I believe that that is where bad design begins.
Also, through these struggles, I really got to get to know my professors a bit more—to the point where I’m really going to miss them this summer just as much as my friends. They helped me realize my underlying time-management and focus issues, which I’ll be working on a lot in the next few months, but they were there for me when I was at my lowest and at the verge of giving up. If you go to CMU, I think you know who specifically I’m talking about, but in general, all of my professors this semester have been that helpful, and I’m not religious at all, but it makes me feel really blessed to be in this school.
On a brighter note, I do have about 7-8 projects that are in the pipes for finishing this summer, and I’ll be in the legendary Pieces studio in the fall semester, so the next (and last) iteration of Asterisk (my portfolio) will be really fun to put together. I have sketches for a website already!
Lastly, I think that visually really showed me where my heart lies. I do really love helping to connect people with information, but also other people as well. So I’m really happy to be working this summer where I am, and it’s going to be a blast. I’m a bit afraid that I won’t be able to keep up, but I’m going to give it my all! I’m going to learn so much, and I’m really grateful for this opportunity.
So while this year has been mind-bogglingly difficult, I can also say that this has easily been my best year at Carnegie Mellon.
Another much-linked chart, this one deemed beautiful enough to grace the cover of a book. An appealing image, certainly. I’m not sure how it relates to flowers, but ok.
Now let’s try using the actual chart. Find what the cultural significance of red is in the Muslim culture. No? Ok, it doesn’t work that way - let’s instead find what color symbolizes peace in Eastern European cultures. Find it yet? Need a compass, perhaps, to trace from the in-chart legend to the desired slice?
Please stop the madness. The purpose of a chart is to illuminate; if it’s harder to read than a raw-data table or a paragraph of text saying the same, then don’t use a chart. And if your goal is simply to create a pretty graphic, then don’t try beefing up your science cred with this “information” stuff.
Arranging data in an aesthetically pleasing way with no regard for how the arrangement affects the viewer’s understanding is simply dishonest. It’s only popular because no one really cares to use these charts for any real purpose. (Color significance in cultures - I mean, does it get any fluffier?) Imagine someone with no database experience “visualizing” a SQL query in this way and trying to sell a database administrator on it.
Information can be beautiful. Information can also be ugly. It can be helpful or misleading, educational or confusing. Information doesn’t care; the designer has to.
