an even pour.

Acqucalda puts the laws of physics to work — sounds complicated, looks beautiful.

enter late & cross your fingers.

I'm kicking myself in the butt for not following STA Chicago's Archive 10 famous tweet "enter early & enter often." I've lucked out (and so have you), the Society of Typographic Arts will now be taking contest submissions up until August 20th! So get to it and download the entry form now.

Poster design by Grip.

better ideas faster.

I just got back from the HOW Design Conference in Denver — feeling completely refreshed! I'm not even unpacked, but noticed one of my favorite presentations, by David Sherwin of Frog Design, has already been posted to slideshare. Check it!

I'll continue to blog bits and pieces from the conference, but couldn't wait to share these useful brainstorming tips.

Better Ideas Faster: How to Brainstorm More Effectively

the packaging buzz.

Is it just me, or are there a million beautiful honey products out there?

1. Beehive Honey
2. Bee Raw
3. Babees Honey

type tuesday: typographic heroine.

via UPPERCASE

The Femme Den.

The Femme Den is here to save women from bad products.

Women are not a niche market, they make up 80% of consumer decisions. So why are most products still designed around or for the male body? My guess is because only 20% of industrial designers are female. This is where The Femme Den comes in! From watches and hospital scrubs to the U.S. Army, this team of women have proved their point.

Good products balance the needs of men and women to the benefit of both. They’re not male products masquerading as unisex or—worse—hiding under a coat of pink paint. They don’t alienate anyone with over claims of being women-focused or women-friendly. They just are.

Kate Rockwell, as interviewed Fast Company

smartEQ.

I had the opportunity to meet up for coffee with a freelance client the other night. He gave me a demo of the project I collaborated on with Elaine. smartEQ is in the final testing phases, but here's a sneak peak of the GarageBand plug-in (which will eventually be available for download).

smartEQ is a novel way to interact with an audio equalizer, perhaps the most common tool used in audio production. Instead of directly adjusting esoteric processing parameters, the user simply rates the extent to which each of a small number of example settings capture the sound that they are looking for. smartEQ then uses these ratings to determine what is the optimal setting for the user. smartEQ is an audio plug-in that will be available in VST, AU, and RTAS for both Mac and Windows platforms.

Andy Sabin

good ideas are often recycled.

Today I'm loving Don Ervin's work for Herman Miller.
R.I.P. logo design legend.  

via NYTimes

Similar design executions: Objectified, Celadon, iPod.

cocktail recipe cards.

Neil Hubert put together one sexy collection of bar cards. The combination of tiny Futura and simple illustrations is almost as fantastic as a sidecar.

love what you do.

via Nicole Lavelle