My company, ERA404, was hired to redesign the blog site for John Hodgman, author of Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require. The site features over 500 original blog postings, 12,000 comments, information about his books and appearances, images, cartoons, and quotes from the books.The blog was designed to have dynamic themes based on the author’s book covers.
Tazo Tea Packaging
I, along with most designers, have always loved the Tazo Tea identity, packaging and campaign.
The other day, on my way to a meeting, I ran into some Starbucks salespeople in Washington Square Park giving away free, cold Starbucks drinks (double-shots of espresso in each!), as well as $5 gift cards and packages of Tazo tea. They were trying to attract NYU students with the disposable income associated with inflated prices (hey, as long as it’s sustainable, I don’t mind), but were happy to give me their free samples too. Read more
reCAPTCHA Enabled
A big apology to those that have tried posting comments on [d]online, specifically those interested in the Flash File Uploader.
Apparently the last Captcha plug-in that I installed was no longer working which made the blog susceptible to a bunch of spam. As a result, I just deleted the 150 comments. If yours was in there, I apologize. It’s now gone. Feel free to repost and I’d be happy to address them.
I highly recommend the WP-reCAPTCHA plug-in, if you don’t currently have it.
Baggins. Shire.
Katherine sent this link, which I thought was funny/interesting enough to repost on [d]online. I was a late admirer of J. R. R. Tolkien. In 4th or 5th grade, Mike Fishbein read The Hobbitt. All I knew was that he could draw a much better dragon than I could (probably still can). So my 9-year-old mind figured that it must have to do with some secrets he’d gleaned from the Tolkien book. Not understanding most of the words or messages in The Hobbitt, I gave up after three pages.
I ♥ Sketch
Ok, here I am, smugly proud of myself for the math involved with Musikal Chairs (most of which was written by Zeh, Paul and Mike), and then I come across I ♥ Sketch, a magnificent application that blows my work out of the water (yet again).
I don’t really understand most of the views/terms in the tutorial, but assume they have a lot to do with architectural renderings. Either way, this program (and the modeler in the tutorial) make me feel significantly less intelligent than I thought I was. Enjoy.
Personal Space Mystery
I noticed a number of the pedestrian bridges on 14th Street are wrapped with barricade tape printed with “Personal Space”. Above, you can see me observing my own personal space, with special thanks to Mike‘s Pearl camera. A cursory search of the interweb reveals no mention of if this is a publicity stunt for a TV show or movie, and I happen to know for a fact that the publishing industry isn’t interested in viral/guerrilla marketing campaigns (or anything requiring much of a budget other than flashmobs) so I’m certain it’s not a book. Anyone have a clue what this is? Or is it just some Parsons kid with an account at ULINE.
A little side-note: Apparently, according to this link (second row, third column) I can give a pearl necklace to anyone I want. 😉
Storefront Illustration
One of our favorite clients, with whom we were featured in HOW Magazine’s “Behind the Design: Brooklyn Style” section, asked me for a quick illustration of his storefront in Brooklyn to help enhance the old-time-y appeal of his new campaign. Below and attached is the illustration.
