But in terms of design and interaction, I learned something from my new digital scale.

In the past, I’ve had spring-based scales that twirled a dial, and some digital models too, that simply read out a round number of pounds. But this new one, well, it wants to be very precise - down to a 10th of a pound. It re-calibrates with every use. In the world of bathroom scales, it’s pretty high tech.

It’s that last 10th of a pound that causes the most stress. It’s kind of like a little extra twist of the knife - “oh, you’re not even 215 even, pal, you’re actually closer to 216″.

So as a user, the level of stress in dealing with a piece of information is directly related to the exactness of that data. The more decimal points that my weight has, the more bent out of shape I’ll get about it.

If you’re a sales person, you know that precise numbers can impress a potential buyer - it sounds more impressive to say “256 horsepower engine” rather than “mid-200’s horsepower”.

But what if you’re trying to dissuade someone from thinking about a particular number? What comes to mind is a Flash pre-loader. Most of them dutifully count from 1 to 100% to indicate how much of the movie is loaded. Aren’t flash movie load times one of the most annoying aspects of interacting with that medium? Wouldn’t it make more sense to say “just getting started … now we’re cooking … almost there … “?

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

To keep things coherent, a theme is recommended, and mine was “loose”.

I had been feeling very much like I was in a rut in terms of my design work. I felt like all my designs were coming out looking the same, and it was all a little too cold. When I started out on this project, I felt like I just needed to loosen up, which is how I decided on the theme.

After you decide roughly what your book will be about, you want to start gathering materials. If you are like me, and seem to gather magazines like lint, this is a great opportunity to purge them, and get something out of it. I had a great big pile - health, tech, computer, design magazines and a National Geographic or two.

You can also draw on things like old sketch books. I had a number of them lying around, with some stuff that was alright. the really quick pen sketches seemed to fit my theme the most, so I used a number of them.

While you’re gathering materials, you also want to be on the lookout for a ’support’ book. This is the found book that the whole thing will be glued to. What you want to use is one of those children’s books that has pages which are made out of sturdy cardboard. That will hold up well to repeated gluing and abuse.

You can just scope out the kid’s section at a book store and see what’s in the bargain bin. I think my book was $4. It was about Santa Clause, and this was after Christmas. What’s interesting is also trying to incorporate elements from the found book into the final product. I think I had Mrs. Clause on a page opposite a giant robot.

The whole point of the project is to not be precious about anything. It’s an exercise in creative freedom, so don’t sweat the details. Especially in the actual collage assembly. It’s supposed to be messy. Embrace it. If that bothers you, put down some newspaper.

I happened to have PVA glue lying around from some bookbinding projects, so I used that in my book. But Elmer’s school glue would work just as well.

After the pages have some time to dry - and you can do the collage in chunks - you will want to seal the book’s pages. I guess there could be some elaborate and clean method - but this is supposed to be quick and dirty, remember? I honestly used packing tape. I just wrapped each page in bands, and that sealed each page essentially in plastic.

So that’s how a glue book is made! It’s just a variation on the concept of “found books” in bookbinding, but it’s fun. It’s really good for a working designer who needs to do something fun and creative.

The other upside is that at the end, you have a little jewel of inspiration for when you’re looking for an idea. It’s kind of like making your own “Art of Looking Sideways“, only much more portable.

[Note: the photo on the cover was found on Flickr. It’s by Kfal!.]

I decided to bring the blog back to life despite obvious neglect for a number of reasons, but the main one is that there is a lot I want to say. The focus will be a little different from before - I’ll still post cartoons as I come up with them, but I’ll be posting other things.

The world of web-design is ever changing - and there are a lot of things to talk about. I’ll be posting articles I come across, and might occasionally be offering an opinion about certain subjects (version targeting in IE8 anyone?). Should be fun!

The quick explanation is this: Java is a programming language that was developed by Sun Mircosystems in the mid-1990’s. It’s cross-platform compatible, so any program written in Java can be used on Windows, Mac or Linux machines. For that reason, it is a popular choice for programs that are built into websites, as the web site owner cannot be sure which operating system their visitors will be using.

In my experience, however, things never seem to work quite the way it was intended. The applications only work about half the time (at least, it seems that way). So this strip was just a play on that.

Truth be told, I’m not even that particularly impressed by the iPhone, nor do I want one. I think that the hard drive size (8 gigs??) and tie to AT&T are deal breakers. Some of the ways one might use it are pretty intriguing, but not enough to spend that kind of money.

What surprised, and irritated, me more was the coverage the iPhone was getting ahead of it’s release. It’s like all of the analysts had to make SOME statement about it - and I think a lot of them were missing the point. I can’t remember which technology firm did it (I think there were several), but they publicly were warning they’re corporate clients not to purchase or support the iPhone for their staffers. When was the iPhone ever being marketed towards corporate users?? At what point was this ever a consideration? I just felt that kind pronouncement was asinine - about as useless as complaining that the iPhone doesn’t make confections.

What gets me, though, is that a huge corporation like that, arguably the largest software maker in the world (are they??), can’t make a browser that freakin’ works. The open source folks at Firefox could pull it off, Apple could pull it off (with Safari), even small Scandinavian company could make it happen (with Opera). But Microsoft? Oh no no no. And it’s not like web standards are anything new - standardized recommendations for rendering HTML has been around since 1999. It’s 8 years later. IE has had several updates - but Microsoft still can’t seem to pull their act together. Even the newest Internet Explorer - IE 7, still doesn’t get it right.

C’mon, people, get with the program!!

PS - don’t even get me started on IE 6.

As for the the method I used to draw it- it’s quite a departure. I dunno, I’ve been feeling like my cartoons had been too “neat”. So I tried to make this one a little more messy - what do you think?

Well, graphic designers everywhere are cringing because of the new logo that was unveiled for the London 2012 Olympic Games. I’ve even seen it referred to as the “logo that rocked the world”.

Here’s UnBeige’s take on it with a nice list of links.
Design Observer’s Adrian Shaughnessy weighs in.
Even CNN has a go.

So I thought it would be obligatory that I do a cartoon about it. I had my little spin on the subject - what do you think? This is my first attempt at being timely with a cartoon. I kind of wish that I had gotten my butt in gear last week, to strike while the iron was hotter. I’m still working on streamlining my process, but this was an improvement.

Basically, I thought, there was some meeting somewhere when a designer got up and presented this logo to a committee. I just was thinking - how did that meeting go? And whoever WAS that presenter deserves a raise - they have a real gift!

Since I’ve been working with the web, I’ve become more and more comfortable with the technology and realizing what it can do. What I’ve also come to realize, maybe even more importantly, is what it CAN’T do. So I’ve had a lot more experience with clients, and a common desire is to have web designs look the same on all browsers. Riiiiiight. Any web developer can tell you that it doesn’t really work that way - there will inevitably be some variation in design, and sometimes you just can’t control it. It’s just part of the learning process - and moving into a digital world.

So, now that it’s up I’d like to know what your reaction is! Let me know in the comment box below!

As for the cartoon - I think most designers can attest to feeling like this every once in a while. I suppose I have a noose fixation, as I used one just a few cartoons ago (click here to see).