Carl Setzer

I love discovering clever web projects. Today, I present you the entire Pacific Crest Trail compressed into 3 minutes. I found adding 1 second of video from each day to be a very unique approach to this.

I've been following Ms. Millman for sometime and highly recommend her podcast: Design Matters . I'm quite deliberate about making time as soon as I see the update come through on my iPhone. This week she interviews Noah Brier . I remember messing around with his project Brand Tags some time back, though after the interview I see an deeper power to the site that I really hadn't considered before. The most important takeaway: that we need to abandon the idea of controlling a brand's image and identity. We, as professionals, can clearly influence and effect perception, but "control"; no. He points out that, really, it's the fans, the public that really control, really own a brand. The interactions with customers, fans and critics all play a part in the identity. Reminds me of several discussions over the years where I say "we can't please everyone. We need to identify who our audience is, focus on them, accept that there will be some un-detractab...

I love innovative design. Besides the sustainability elements, I think it's quite ascetically pleasing. 

Am I the only one who hates justified text? I find the cleanliness of the aligned ends to be more than offset by the weird spacing. I'm sure it can be made to work with forethought and focus. That brings back memories of fiddling with typeset, adding up all the characters and spaces, figuring out how to word the thing in order to best utilize the space. Anyway, just being a little snarky in response to an e-flyer I received today. Perhaps just being a bit too cranky and perfectionist. Maybe I just need another cup of coffee.

My inbox is out of control. I know others feel this, too. This blizzard of information, inboxes, tweets, Facebook, texts, calls, news-sites...on and in it goes. We've gone far past data saturation. I's wondered lately where we go from here. How do we cope with this? Tools are being developed, but most seem to focus on new ways to deliver. Perhaps different packaging, clever design; but the problem isn't readability, it's volume. How do we filter? Our culture has never faced this before. Never has information been so commoditized. Never have we had all the world's assembled knowledge sitting in our pockets. Most of us filter by ignoring, where it's views we don't like, voices we find annoying, or just deleting this one email "this one time". Yet, for me at least, that's unsatisfying. I value discussion. Value getting new voices heard, new ideas expressed. Yet, without finding away to increase our absorption rate, it seems we're faced...

It's not often I see a graphic that does a good job communicating something, anything. I spend a lot of time looking at graphics in presentations that either try to communicate too much, or not enough, or nothing at all. This one really is exceptional. Great use of color, white space, image size, etc to tell many components of a story laddering into a larger point. Edward Tufte would be proud. (Graphic from The Global Sociology Blog . For full size, Click Here

As a "true" American, I have a deep love for the automobile. However, I'm a bit urban in my love. Though I have a deep respect for the historical American auto (watch my head turn after a Hudson or Packard), for my Modern car passions, I turn to Europe. German cars, mostly Volkswagen, garner my focus (It is important to note that I currently drive a Honda Accord; necessity, not passion). (I don't know if I would have a wider range of loves if my wallet were fatter.) Comically, my favorite VW has been the van . Though discontinued in the US, the Multivan still exists. The fact that I covet one of these, and would be willing to ship it to the States (with a few years of saving my pennies, of course) marks me as a geek (as if I needed another marker). I guess I'll need to put the Linux penguin on the back window. What I find fascinating is the "why". I can't put my finger on a particular wow factor. Some of it comes from my cyclist/outdoorsy days, where...