[d]online

In some of my research for an upcoming project for Pantone/X-rite, I came across this fun little number, which I thought you might enjoy as well.

Upon completion and launch of John Hodgman‘s new web site, Areas of My Expertise, the author recently mentioned me and my company (era//404) on a Twit.tv interview and pays tribute to the colors and theme-switching functionality.

For clarification, puce was mentioned in discussion of the theme switcher on the site as a hypothetical color for a third book cover/color palette/theme, not as a synonym for the ochre or “mustard” color currently employed by the More Information Than You Require theme. Puce is actually a reddish-brown.

Somehow I happened upon this weird, but fun gadget that “transforms your browser into a ligntning fast, cinematic way to discover the web”.

It’s a plug-in for Firefox and other browsers that turns web pages with media into a PaperVision3D-style gallery with functions for zoom, play (if movies), share and more. It’s also a thinly-veiled method for getting you to install a product-oriented shopping plug-in, but that’s besides the point. Frankly, I wouldn’t have any use for browsing the web in 3D and want my shopping experience to be unbiased, personally-driven and bells-and-whistles-free, but hell, it’s still fun to watch the video. Sorta reminds me of the Airtight TiltViewer.

My biggest frustration with online galleries has always been search- and sort-ability by photo contents. The introduction of captioning to Picasa and tagging to Flickr did little to quell my disappointment. Sure I could view a tag cloud of photos that were tagged with the word “New York” or “Mom”, but I couldn’t easily sort by who was included in the photos. And, beyond that, my sojourns to social events would all be tagged after the event and not the containing people, unless I went through each individually and tagged the person or people for each picture.

Read more…

While I don’t necessarily agree with most of Lars Willem Veldkampf‘s assertions about font selection, I do think this it’s a fascinating exercise in typography to think about the subliminal meanings behind their evaluation, selection, discarding, and thought processes. The very act of choosing a typeface to communicate some deeper or subliminal meaning is the same as altering your own penmanship based on to whom you write.

Why do we select the fonts we do for specific pieces/identities? Inherently, it is based more on what works best instead of what is perfect (as faces are a limited commodity and you can’t be Ed Benguiat and design a new font for each project). Read more…

I was getting a little frustrated that all the cool touch-screen phones were for different networks (iPhone on AT&T, Blackberry Storm on Verizon). Then I saw that T-Mobile touts the first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1:

Need to catch up with your Gmail on the go? That’s easy with Gmail on Android. Keep your conversations going, search and find any message, and get notified when a new message arrives. Anywhere, and any time – for free. Read more…