Jason Santa Maria

The Space Between the Notes

2013-06-06T15:24:33+00:00

All signs are pointing to a revamp of iOS being announced at Apple’s WWDC next week, and with it, a lot of speculation around what it might look like.

Will iOS 7 be flat instead of skeuomorphic? Can Apple innovate with software as they’ve done with hardware? Sure, why not, but maybe we’re not asking the right questions. An interface has less to do with what it looks like and more with what it feels like in use (with a nod to Mr. Jobs).

The bright side of skeuomorphism

If skeuomorphism has a bright side, it’s that an interface can take advantage of a user’s existing knowledge. A calendar that looks like a literal calendar—rather than an interface for calendar-like functions—can set users into a familiar mode. The interface needs no time to explain what it does, and the user can get on with the task at hand.

This kind of familiarity may sound like an unnecessary crutch, but remember: it wasn’t that long ago that the idea of an adaptable interface under glass was new to all of us. For folks who aren’t as savvy with technology, the familiarity provided by skeuomorphism can mean more than you know. Of course, as with all things, there needs to be a balance. Apple’s iOS has veered so heavily into skeuomorphism that it often detracts from the experience, and amounts to over-decoration: stitching, leather, torn pages. Blech.

After looking at more heavy-handed skeuomorphic design choices like that, it’s tempting to see “flat” design as a natural counterpoint. But so-called flat design is not the opposite of skeuomorphism—they aren’t even on the same spectrum. That’s because this flat movement isn’t an approach for designing interactions, but aesthetic veneers. Calling someone’s design style “flat” is like saying a musician’s style is “loud.”

And veneer is a good thing! It’s what stuff looks like and aids in the way we perceive an interface. But don’t mistake a flat design for just designing minimally to create the most clear interface possible, which should be the goal for most any design. A good interface can be flat, 3D, photographic, invisible, or anything in between.

Instead, skeuomorphism is a mode of design and a metaphor for function. It’s a spectrum, not a binary between being either “skeuomorphic” or “not skeuomorphic.” This is helpful, since interface design is rarely about black-or-white scenarios. Good interfaces blend the most useful and appropriate pieces along the spectrum, allowing users to build on the familiarity they have with other objects and experiences. It’s absolutely true that minimalist designs can declutter interfaces, which can help solve some interaction and usability problems. But the lack of clutter itself is not the innovation; it’s still the veneer. If innovation does happen, it’s usually in the ideas, language, and interactions that lie beneath that exterior.

The myth of innovation

The word “innovation” gets thrown around so much one might think it’s as easy as applying enough elbow grease. The mere notion of innovation has become some sort of arms race in wowing people with newness. This might be a straw man for our attention-mongering culture, but it’s far from reality. If you think innovation happens by continually introducing things no one has ever seen or dreamed of before, you would make a poor product lead.

What people sometimes mean when they say innovation is actually iteration—continually building on good thinking and assumptions, then, most importantly, believing in the equity of those decisions enough to keep revising upon them. This more pragmatic approach doesn’t get much love, sadly. Maybe that’s because when you break down the stepping stones of iteration, they look and sound decidedly less sexy than a new shiny thing.

How can we be so blind to the fact that companies like Apple have been succeeding because of careful, patient iteration for many years? That they have never really worked in leaps and bounds, but increments? Good ideas don’t pop out of someone’s head pure and fully-formed. They get that way by being tested, questioned, beaten down, and rebuilt. Real innovation means thinking around a problem from a different point of view. Trying to be innovative, just like trying to be cool, usually fails.

Growing up

iOS needs to mature to continue to innovate. When that happens, it probably won’t look entirely new, just like another small step forward. It won’t be flashy, and pundits will cry fail, but that’s also how you’ll know Apple is doing something right.

I want iOS to grow up. I want it to act like it’s been around for 6 years and that it knows the score. Iteration like this can reduce the need for skeuomorphism; when people become more familiar with an interface, it can be pared down aesthetically over time. Not necessarily flat, just less.

But the most important issues aren’t in the aesthetics. For instance, I rarely find myself monotasking with my phone or iPad. I’m looking something up, taking notes, and composing an email. Or retrieving login credentials from 1Password and then jumping over to a browser to sign in (after having already been there to get a login screen before jumping to 1Password). These days, doing anything on my phone isn’t measured by what an app does, but by the space in time I’m navigating between apps—the moments of transition between doing something and doing something else. Over the years, getting to the task at hand, wherever I am, has become the most frequent point of frustration with using a gadget. The app switcher bar in iOS is a bandage that’s well past its usefullness. iOS needs a more elegant way for users to flow from one app to the next to achieve one task.

Claude Debussy said that “music is the space between the notes,” and good interaction design shapes the space between tasks. It’s not as simple as just saying iOS needs “multitasking.” The OS should feel more like an environment for stuff to nebulously happen where and when it’s desired, rather than a series of isolated cells knocking out morse code between the walls.

I don’t know what the solution looks like. Thankfully, that job goes to Jonathan Ive and his team.

Editorially

2013-02-11T18:36:19+00:00

Writing is hard. Just putting that sentence out there is laughable, because it seems so obvious. The fact that we know it doesn’t make it go away, but it does mean there are many opportunities to make it less painful.

A good process means understanding that the nature of writing is more than putting words on a page. It’s about iteration and collaboration — giving the conversation around the text equal weight with the text itself. Our tools need to set the stage for these conversations to happen with as little friction as possible.

The inimitable Mandy Brown — an editor, designer, and colleague of mine from both Typekit and A Book Apart — has had the itch to do something about this for as long as I’ve known her. When she asked me to help her, I signed right up. Before I knew it, we were joined by friends and talented heavyweights, Ethan Marcotte and David Yee. Shortly afterwards we hired Rob Brackett, following his stint at Code for America. I’m humbled to count myself among such an amazing group of folks.

We’re making a new platform for writers and editors called Editorially. Our goal is to make the very best tool for writing — one that helps you collaborate, and so helps you write better.

We’re just getting started, and there are many fun things yet to come, but today we’re ready to start talking about what we’ve been making. You can read more on our blog, catch up with us on Twitter, and most importantly, signup to get access to our forthcoming beta.

De-Aparting

2012-12-19T18:48:33+00:00

Over 7 years and 167 issues later, the time has come for me to step down as creative director for A List Apart.

Jeffrey gave me a shot all those years ago to work with him on some amazing projects. Eventually, this reflected inward and we worked together with Eric Meyer to revamp A List Apart into something worthy of its content.

We concocted a simple system for issues, branding each one with unique colors to mark the event, and articles shepherded with editorial illustrations by Kevin Cornell. And it was all writ large for resolutions as gigantic as 1024 x 768. We introduced a shared identity system for the site and for ALA’s sister organizations: An Event Apart, and the yet to be created, A Book Apart.

A List Apart was a lot of firsts for me: first big community project, first largely editorial website design, first website intended for a screen over 800px wide, and more. None of those things may seem remarkable today, but back then they were, and they still mean a lot to me now.

I’ll miss the ebb and flow of the content stream, helping shape the stories, and working with some seriously smart folks. Working alongside them on ALA helped make me into the designer I am today.

A shiny new version of the site is planned for early next year that’s going to be awesome. Besides, they can’t get rid of me that easily, I’ll be hanging around the new site writing about design and typography. And I’m still full steam ahead on A Book Apart with Mandy, Jeffrey, and the gang. Onward!

Saying “No”

2012-11-14T14:51:59+00:00

CreativeMornings was started by my friend and studiomate Tina Roth-Eisenberg is one of the best speaker series around, bringing in wonderfully insightful people to share their stories over a hot cup of coffee among local creative folk. What started out as a local NY endeavor has since blossomed into a global movement with nearly 40 chapters all over the world.

I had the pleasure of speaking alongside Simon Collison for the New York chapter last month as part of the Kickstarter benefit to create an archive of of every video from every speaker from every chapter.

I spoke on a topic that’s become very near and dear to my heart in the past few years: saying “no”. It might be saying no to a project or job, or even something that you think you can’t say no to, but finding the strength to set your own priorities for what you want is one of the most crucial things you can do in life. Saying no used to make me uncomfortable, and despite making many mistakes on my way there, I’ve learned to feel good about saying it. The talk is just a short 20 minutes, but sums up most everything I’ve learned about the topic in all my years working and living.

Not to be left out, Simon gave a heartfelt talk about striving to feel fulfilled as a designer amidst the speed of career and life. In Simon’s words:

My own talk was a short, sharp and very honest fifteen minutes about being a web designer, managing the weight of learning and noise, turning that noise into signals, communicating with our cousins in print, and more besides.

Thanks to the efforts of Tina, her cadre of helpers, and chapter organizers, CreativeMornings consistently serves as a creative pep talk for people everywhere. I’m so happy that we’ll all have access to an archive of everything soon. Until then, many videos are already available on Vimeo across the chapters.

And I want to say thanks to everyone who helped back the Kickstarter project, especially those of you who came out early to hear Simon and me speak in New York.

Content Strategy for Mobile, by Karen McGrane

2012-11-05T14:00:00+00:00

I’m excited to announce another title from A Book Apart, Content Strategy for Mobile by Karen McGrane. Karen is one of my favorite writers, speakers, and teachers. She has the ability to boil down complex information in such a pleasant and reassuring way. And she does just that in her book:

You don’t get to decide which platform or device your customers use to access your content: they do.

Mobile isn’t just smartphones, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you are on the move. It’s a proliferation of devices, platforms, and screensizes — from the tiniest “dumb” phones to the desktop web. How can you be sure that your content will work everywhere, all the time

Karen McGrane will teach you everything you need to get your content onto mobile devices (and more). You’ll first gather data to help you make the case for a mobile strategy, then learn how to publish flexibly to multiple channels. Along the way, you’ll get valuable advice on adapting your workflow to a world of emerging devices, platforms, screen sizes, and resolutions. And all in the less time than it takes you to fly from New York to Chicago.

The mobile landscape is changing at breakneck pace. While technical concerns are important for working on mobile devices, content still sits at the head of the table. Karen will show you how. Pick up a copy of Content Strategy for Mobile today!

Also, A Book Apart is donating 15% of all sales on Monday, November 5th, to the Red Cross to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Leaving Typekit

2012-10-31T17:45:30+00:00

It’s with a heavy heart I write that today is my last day at Typekit. I’ve been with the company since the start, and it’s always been a dream project that combines many of my loves: type, design, the web, and smart people.

From the first time I chatted with Jeff Veen about it, I knew I was in for a fun ride. My time at Typekit has been some of the most rewarding of my career. The folks here have taught me so much over the years, and they remain one of the brightest and most talented teams I’ve ever had the pleasure to work among.

What’s next? For now, I’m finishing up a book, trying to simplify things professionally, and say “no” a lot more often. I’ve also started working on a fun new project with some friends. More on that soon…

Baseline Grids on the Web

2012-10-19T16:45:23+00:00

This is a response to a thread on Branch. I’m posting it here because it ended up longer than I thought, and overshot Branch’s character limit for replies.

This is very much my personal take on baseline grids as they apply the web. I’m not trying to convince anyone; these are just the reasons I’m not a fan of them on the web. However, I am very much in support of them in print design (see below).

Some of my problems with baseline grids on the web are merely personal annoyances, others are technical issues. For example:

First off, just as using a grid or layout does not a good design make, so too for baseline grids. Grids are means for organization and improvisation, not a formula for success.
It’s incredibly difficult to maintain a baseline grid in a medium as inconsistent and fluid as a web page. Images, form elements, rendering differences between browsers and platforms: these can all throw a baseline grid out of phase. This only gets worse when you’re setting up a design for someone else to implement or maintain, as we often do in client work. In other words, if you’re not intimately familiar with the intricacies of a given grid system, it’s incredibly easy to mess it up.
Desktop apps like InDesign offer configurable settings, allowing us to force text back into phase as it’s thrown off by different elements. Unfortunately, we don’t have equivalent control on the web. CSS just doesn’t have the affordances for that kind of complexity right now.
The imposed rhythm of a baseline grid is only apparent under certain circumstances. This is due to both the variable viewport size (people might not have their window open very large), and also to what the specific content is being displayed. Baseline grids are most apparent in running text, which may not matter for many sites. While many sites may have articles full of running text, they also have many more elements (navigation bars, logos, forms, etc) interspersed with the text. That’s in stark contrast to the running text found in books or newspapers, where there are few interruptions within the text that are unrelated to the text itself.
Ratios and baselines grids can be too rigid for the inherently flexible nature of the web. Just because something works at one size doesn’t mean the same ratio will be appropriate at larger or smaller sizes. Type is such a finicky beast that it needs to be judged optically first, not by the numbers.
Baseline grids are, ultimately, most useful in print. Print is a fixed medium where rhythm can have a powerful effect: after all, you can see a piece’s full boundaries. But beyond that, the grid’s most useful traits happen on paper. As light shines through paper when you are reading, the paper’s translucency reveals a ghost of the type from the reverse side of the page. Those lines need to adhere to the same baseline grid so that the baselines are in the same spot. If the baselines were misaligned, it would be very distracting to the reading process.

Again, these issues make baseline grids on the web a tough sell for me. If I’m going to use them, I want them to improve the design–but I also want to make sure maintaining them doesn’t create a ton of frustration.

Beautiful Bitmaps

2012-09-27T14:34:32+00:00

The wonderful folks over at UPPERCASE Magazine invited me to participate in a fun typographic project called “Beautiful Bitmaps” for their latest issue:

For issue 15, we invited 26 typographers, designers and illustrators to make beautiful bitmaps by taking this vestigial part of digital type—the bitmap—and making it into something to be newly appreciated.

Each person was assigned a letter. I was given the letter “b” to reinterpret, and immediately thought of Mr. John Baskerville. Baskerville is responsible for many influential letterforms, but he also pioneered new techniques in printing, paper, and ink-making. He developed inks that were darker and richer than those in use by any of his contemporaries in the mid-18th century. And with that ink, Baskerville’s type came alive.

The idea came together pretty quickly: big ink drops on paper and a quick photo before they all dried. Here’s a photo from the shoot I set up in my kitchen:

And the final result of my letter:

All of the results are really fun, and are available to buy as prints (from very small to very large). A portion of proceeds from Beautiful Bitmaps will go to creating an UPPERCASE scholarship fund to assist a reader in pursuing education in design, illustration, typography or craft. I particulalry love Grant Hutchinson’s and Erik Marinovich’s letters.

If you happen to be around Calgary, all of the pieces will be on exhibition at UPPERCASE starting on October 4.

Off Book, The Art of Web Design

2012-09-21T15:18:55+00:00

Look ma, I’m on PBS! Or at least the PBS website. A couple weeks back I was asked to be interviewed for a web design themed addition to PBS’ awesome Off Book documentary series.

I’m joined by the wonderful Mr. Jeffrey Zeldman and Miss Whitney Hess where we tackle subjects from the history of web design and user experience to aesthetics and what all those things mean to the web from here on out.

Despite being all hopped up on allergy medicine, I manage to say a couple of smart sounding things. Thanks to the PBS crew for the opportunity!

The Off Book series has produced some really great videos, including one of my favorites on typography. You can find all of them on the Off Book site or YouTube.

Stealing Sheep

2012-08-27T15:11:42+00:00

When I read this Designer Spotlight on type designer Frederic Goudy it made me remember again just how much I like him. It’s not because he made great type — he did, with well over 100 typefaces to his name including Goudy Old Style. And it’s not because this made him more prolific than most of his contemporaries and the third most prolific type designer in American history.

Those things are more than enough to make me like the guy, but what made me a Goudy superfan is that he did all this and more after he was 40 years old. Before that he busied himself keeping books for a realtor in Chicago.

He didn’t start making type seriously until after he was 40, and despite being a lover of lettering and appreciator of type, was pretty new to the craft of actually making type. As Popular Science put it in this 1942 article:

During the next 36 years, starting almost from scratch at an age when most men are permanently set in their chosen vocations, he cut 113 fonts of type, thereby creating more usable faces than did the seven greatest inventors of type and books, from Gutenberg to Garamond.

Whenever I hear people talking about it being too late to learn a new skill, or when I feel like something might be out of reach for me, I think of what Goudy accomplished “when most men are permanently set in their chosen vocations.” I admire the hell out of that and am constantly inspired by it whenever I’m reminded of him.

There’s a great silent short film from the 1930s called The Creation of a Printing Type from the Design to The Print that shows Goudy doing what it says on the tin. I can’t find it online anymore, but it is included on the DVD of the also excellent Making Faces documentary on Jim Rimmer.

For more on Goudy, Luc Devroye’s biography page or this short piece on process and criticism by Steven Heller are good places to start, or pick up most any book on type history.

Symbolset

2012-07-09T22:16:49+00:00

Here’s a new take on icon fonts for the web: Symbolset. Symbolsets are semantic symbol fonts that replace words with icons via OpenType ligature support. For instance, a word like “cart” will be replaced by an icon of a shopping cart. The text remains intact under the hood because it’s in your markup, but browsers that support OpenType features will use the icon instead. You can play with a live demo over at the site to see what I mean.

This is a great bit of progressive enhancement to try out that’s not only semantic but inherently accessible. Symbolset is lovingly made by some of our Studiomates at Oak, and they have plans to release new sets in different styles and provide font hosting in the future.

On a side note, these are some really tightly designed icons. I’ve tried lots of vector icon libraries—I find them useful for quick comping or starting points for creating new icons. Many can be a little sloppy, either not optimized for whole number sizing or full of stray vector work. But, Symbolset icons are solidly handcrafted to work at a variety of common sizes.

Right now you can pick up the Standard and Social sets for a steal (complete with web-ready versions for you to use on your site), and I highly recommend them.

Pixar Story Rules

2012-06-26T16:20:33+00:00

Pixar story artist Emma Coats has tweeted a series of “story basics” over the past month and a half — guidelines that she learned from her more senior colleagues on how to create appealing stories.

The whole list is great, and easily applicable to any kind of creative pursuit, not just storytelling. Though, that’s what most creative pursuits boil down to anyway; telling a story. These ones below really grabbed me because I see them popping up in my own work:

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on - it’ll come back around to be useful later.

Hillman

2012-04-26T20:41:21+00:00

Hillman Curtis, artist, designer, filmmaker, Brooklynite, bicyclist, friend, and explorer passed away last week at the young age of 51. I put off writing about him because I couldn’t find the words. Everything I would try to write felt so insignificant for such a significant man. Thankfully, as is usually the case, I found my words among friends. The folks over at Happy Cog have collected some thoughts on Hillman and invited a few of us staff alumni to share too. Below is my contribution:

I followed Hillman’s work when I was first getting started in design. He stood out as a voice and style all his own; you could plainly see that this guy was in a whole different class. And after I had read his stunning book, MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer, I wanted to be just like him. If not for Hillman’s work, I wouldn’t be the designer I am today.

Later when I moved to NY I ended up living in the same neighborhood as Hillman. I’m honored to have counted myself among his friends, and further to have had the opportunity to collaborate on a few of his projects. I always looked forward to running into him on the street and talking at length about bikes and cameras and what we were each obsessed with at that moment. He was generous with his time and endlessly curious about bringing beauty to the world.

His influence will be felt for many years to come. I didn’t get to know him half as much as I wish, but even now I look up to him as a creative force, an inspiration, and as kind-hearted a guy as they come. He will be missed.

More on Hillman

The New York Times has a great piece on Hillman, and many individuals shared stories online too. If you’ve never seen it, or if you haven’t seen it in some time, please do have a look at Hillman’s work. This film is a great place to start.

Design Is a Job, by Mike Monteiro

2012-04-10T14:25:13+00:00

I’m very excited for our latest release from A Book Apart available today, Mike Monteiro’s Design Is a Job. I’ve been working in design a while now and good handbooks on how to do it right are few and far between.

Years ago, I read Norman Potter’s What Is a Designer, a thin yet surprisingly dense book that attempts to quantify this dear profession. There’s truth to be found there, but the language is terse. Perhaps it’s an effort to dissuade all but the most brave; if you get to the end and you still want to be a designer, you may have earned it. This industry can beat you down and offer little reprieve, and Potter asks that you take it on the chin and ask for more. If I’d read it when I was still in design school, I might have changed my major.

Thankfully, Mike’s book takes a different path. Rather than trying to scare you off, it nudges you forward and says “I’ve got your back.” From the book’s introduction:

So I wrote you a book. It has a spine and by the time you’re done reading so will you.

Our reviewers who’ve read it remarked they wish they’d had this book before starting out. I gladly count myself among them, but its impact is bigger than that. Mike provides solid advice without attempting to chart a mythical single course that works every time. He speaks from experience, but doesn’t preach. He lays out what’s worked and what hasn’t for him and what he’s learned along the way.

If you’re smart, you can see how these lessons apply to doing business on your own or with others, but also how damn easily these things extend themselves to dealing with other humans in general. And it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a designer or not, what’s laid out here is universal.

Books like this are rare, people don’t typically talk about how they do business. When they do, it’s usually a snoozefest or some sort of smarmy business book. This is practical, honest, earnest, and from the gut.

You can preview a chapter from the book over at A List Apart, or see the talk that started it all, Mike Monteiro’s “Fuck You, Pay Me.”

I do wish I had this book when I started out, but hell, I’ve got it now and I’ve got the spine to show for it. Get your spine today.

Comic Books on the iPad

2012-04-03T16:36:58+00:00

A page from Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener’s awesome Atomic Robo.

I’ve been reading comic books since I was a kid, and now the new iPad has quickly become my primary means for reading them. Comics are one of the few printed formats whose interaction may have actually improved (or at the least didn’t diminish) when they moved to the iPad.

The de facto standard for digital comics is the app Comixology — whose technology is also licensed by standalone apps from the big publishers. It’s available for the iPhone and iPad (plus Android and Kindle Fire, but I haven’t tried those). Panelfly is another app that’s been around for a while, but the newly teased interface on the site is only available on the Galaxy Tab (the one in the iOS App Store is still the old interface), and they’ve been largely silent about when the release might happen.

Regardless, Comixology seems to have the lionshare of content from all the big publishers, with many titles being released the same day as print (like The Walking Dead).

With the new iPad’s crazy screen, reading a fully zoomed-out page is now comfortable because all of the text is crisp and readable. The interface also provides a smart panel-by-panel zoom that can be great for some books. This view can be fun because you actually get surprised when the story unfolds (rather than seeing something you haven’t read yet out of the corner of your eye).

Moar Better

Comixology may be the best comics app out there, but there’s always room for improvement. Some of the typical interactions I’m used to in other services leave me wanting with Comixology. It has the potential to be even more awesome than it is now, and these are a few of my humble desires from it in the future:

Better relevance: Surfacing relevant titles based on my tastes or purchases would be really helpful for discovery. The current system is highly focused on what’s new, but there are loads of great titles from the past waiting to be discovered.
Better alerts: The current system uses the iOS notifications to alert you (if you opted into alerts for a particular title), but these are easily missed or dismissed by mistake. I’d love to be able to have a location to keep track of these in the app so that I can act on them at my leisure. Also, the ability to opt into alerts for not just titles, but anything new from writers, artists, characters, and more.
Wishlists: Sometimes you see stuff you don’t want to buy right now.
Friends and what they’re reading: Comics have always been a very social thing for me. I read some, talk about them with others, and we share mutual recommendations for other comics.
User lists: I’d love to curate my favorite comics and storylines, or even stories based around themes into lists. And I’d really love to see other users’ lists of the same. Just think, “Best origin stories”, “Best one-shots”, and more.
Lending library: It’s probably really difficult, for both technical and legal reasons, but like I said above, comics can be really social. We started a comics club in the studio for just this purpose where we could lend each other stuff we liked. I’d even pay a monthly subscription fee to offset things.

Most of these things are straightforward patterns we’ve seen in services for years now. I don’t mean to belittle the effort it would take to make them, I just mean we may not need to reinvent the wheel either.

Wither Comic Book Stores?

I hate the idea of taking money away from the local comic shop. But then again, my local comic shop already closed a year ago, while I was still a frequent patron.

If a particular book is important to me, or leaves a lasting impression, I will still buy it in print. If for no other reason than to keep it closer to me for years to come.

But the advent of reading more comics on the iPad is saving my already overloaded bookshelves. I’m buying more than I did when I only bought in print (which isn’t bad for the industry), but now I’m less concerned with figuring out where to keep them.

Paper by FiftyThree

2012-03-29T18:49:30+00:00

Paper is a new drawing app for the iPad from FiftyThree. Immediately after watching the video, I downloaded it (free download with paid add-ons) and ordered Cosmonaut and Jot styluses to try out.

As a habitual sketcher, I’ve tried lots of drawing apps before, but this is the most promising one yet. The simplicity and lack of chrome for navigation (not unlike what we’ve seen in Clear for the iPhone) really speaks to me. In the short time I’ve played with it, sans stylus, I already love it.

Stamen Maps

2012-03-21T15:10:13+00:00

Stamen has released some beautiful alternative takes on map tiles. They’re all free to use wherever you display OpenStreetMap data. All three are great, but the watercolor one is particularly pleasing to the eye, feeling a bit reminiscent of an old pirate treasure map. Maybe we just need to throw some all-caps italic Caslon on top of it.

Kickstarter keeps getting better

2012-02-28T16:26:33+00:00

Kickstarter has quickly become one of my favorite sites around, and not just now, but for as long as I’ve been on the internet. Their goal is so empowering, so noble. Every time I visit the site, there is a very good chance I’ll be parting ways with some cash. Whenever I see someone talking so deeply about something they want to make a reality, and how low the bar is to help them do it, it gets me every time. It’s such a simple concept, but the effect is gargantuan.

Today I read this, Kickstarter Expects To Provide More Funding To The Arts Than NEA:

One of the company’s three co-founders, Yancey Strickler, said that Kickstarter is on track to distribute over $150 million dollars to its users’ projects in 2012, or more than entire fiscal year 2012 budget for the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), which was $146 million.

Yowza. That’s all at once heartwarming and troubling. It’s troubling how regularly the US stunts arts funding, but it’s also amazing that grassroots efforts like Kickstarter have effectively doubled the money available to artists. Yes, I know, they aren’t the same thing, but it’s a promising development.

Our Favorite Typefaces of 2011 at Typographica

2012-01-26T01:13:23+00:00

One of the best annual wrap-ups returns after a hiatus in 2009-10, Our Favorite Typefaces, from Typographica. Welcome back!

The idea is simple: I invite a group of writers, educators, type makers and type users to look back at 2011 and pick the release that excited them most.
…

This is not a juried contest. The result isn’t necessarily the “best fonts of the year”, or even those most used or ballyhooed. But these 50 selections do capture a pretty accurate snapshot of where type design is now, and where it’s headed.

And the results are spot on. 50 reviews is a lot to digest, and I’m still picking my way through them, but there is a lot to love here. Not only is this a great wrap up of the year, but contributes to a valuable collection of commentary on the state of type.

Some favorite reviews so far are Indra Kupferschmid on Cyrus Highsmith’s Salvo, Aegir Hallmundur on Travis Kochel’s amazing Chartwell, Tim Brown on José Scaglione and Veronika Burian’s Abril, and Caren Litherland on Ludwig Übele’s FF Tundra. It’s great to have a chance to give some typefaces a second look, or discover some that you missed over the course of the year.

I’m also honored to contribute a review to the mix. I chose Nicole Dotin’s beautiful new text face, Elena. It reads like a dream.

A List Apart: Issue 342

2012-01-19T19:32:32+00:00

The latest issue of A List Apart is one of my favorites in recent memory, and has three articles you can’t miss.

In “An Important Time for Design”, Cameron Koczon challenges designers to be all that they can be:

The web is going to increasingly shape our world and consequently our daily lives. We can either sit on the sidelines and submissively assist those who are doing the shaping or we can take a more active role in creating the future we want. This year, thanks to a spike in demand, designers have a chance to actively nudge the world in any direction they like. It’s a huge opportunity with a tiny window. Let’s not let it pass by.

Next, Mark Otto walks us through “Building Twitter Bootstrap”, a fantastically useful bit of web design documentation:

Ultimately this boiled down to one core concept: pairing designers with developers. Constant interaction with developers is what sparked Bootstrap and continues to drive its development over a year later. From whiteboarding ideas to coding rough prototypes, collaborating across disciplines is what made Bootstrap successful for internal use at Twitter. This process informed the development of nearly every feature in Bootstrap and has worked remarkably well over time.

And Scott Kellum closes us out with “A Pixel Identity Crisis” where we learn how our little pixel is growing up and getting all awkward:

When using a phone that you held close, a reference pixel will be smaller on the screen than a projection you view from a distance. If the viewer holds their phone up so it is side-by-side with the projection, the pixel sizes should look identical no matter the resolution or pixel density the devices have. When implemented properly, this new standard will provide unprecedented stability across all designs on all platforms no matter the pixel density or viewing distance.