A perfect execution no longer gives us the same impact as something more original and creative — something we have not seen before. When everyone has access to beautiful recordings of Mozart on their iPods and perfect prints of da Vinci on their walls, the only way to compete is by creating something they do not have access to, and so our addiction to originality is fueled ever further.

graphicporn:

Functional Graphic Design in the 20’s (by Counter-Print)

Over at TNW, Harrison Weber ran an article after listen to a conversation over at twitter between Pat Dryburgh, Tom Creighton and Geoff Teehan. Go read them first.

Done? Well, of course a particular client–designer relationship comes to mind. Paul Rand said to Steve Jobs before NeXT identity project began:

I will solve your problem for you. And you will pay me. And you don’t have to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people. But I’ll solve your problem for you the best way I know how. And you use it or not. That’s up to you. You’re the client. But you pay me.

I too are starting-out right now, so, I can’t pull-off something like this, it’s Rand’s privilege for being a designer of his stature. What I’m going to do is charge client mainly based on value of my work, and with my effort as a secondary factor to add-up. Sounds greedy? No. Both value and effort are equally important, here’s an old story – which to be honest, I just happened to know without any slight trace of its origin – to further illustrate my point:

An engineer was asked to fix some trouble with heavy machinery inside a factory, he pick up a piece of chalk and marks a couple of x’es around the machine with a precise and confident manner while other on-site engineers look at those marks and reluctantly admit how they missed all those spots. After the machine got fixed, the factory owner asked this engineer to send the bill. And so he did. It cost $10,000, the owner asked him if can he breakdown this price, itemize it. The engineer said, “Sure. A dollar for a piece of chalk, and $9,999 for knowing exactly where to use the chalk to mark the spots.”

The effort of this engineer’s work were compensated with the value he gave.

Found this link when reading this post from Intercom. Serendipity.

The Grid from Canada were my favorite.

“Good shit is happening — lots and lots and lots of it.” So say the editors of The Grid in their mission statement about Toronto. And so says the jury about The Grid itself.

Also love the mission statement, spot-on.

This is a perennial question. The truth, of course, is that Apple is neither. Apple is an experience company. That they create both hardware and software is part of creating the entire product experience.

This second paragraph is all it takes to hook me to read the rest of this yet another great post from John Gruber.

Patrick King on his new site fixing the hobo suit:

We see ideas spring up as a result to broad circumstance, which are then visually interpreted ad hoc. That initial communication is done both with and without design—as some designers, naturally curious about new ideas, are involved in the movements.

But then, it turns into a chicken-or-the-egg conversation.

Does design only give a concrete way to see at a pre-formed idea, or is it also the inverse: that design helps to form the structure of the idea, because now it can be seen

Continuing from the last post fashion, here’s Khoi Vinh:

It’s difficult to say exactly how much design is “too much,” but finding that middle ground may be the most important job that an interaction designer has. Negotiating an equilibrium between the user’s ability to roam free and the system’s desire to funnel activities into specific directions is tricky business. This is a challenge that requires not only imagination and skill, which the best designers always have, but also perseverance and insight — the ability and willingness to work in an iterative, responsive fashion, with the understanding that the job is never really done. Even among the best designers, that’s rare.

Matt Alexander from ONE37.net writes on theloopinsight:

Focus on the user, not the headline. The headline and the praise you so desperately desire will come to you, rather than you to it. The idea should not bend to the will of the press, but grow and evolve based upon the inherent goodness of the initial thought.

Many great points that I completely agree with. Don’t design for publicity but design for superiority.

Looks awesome. Almost feel like Microsoft’s Metro with 70’s flair. Smart use of gesture, my concern with using gesture this way is that it isn’t obvious to first-time user how to navigate and use this app.