Yeah sure, Apple and a handful of other design focused companies do a pretty good job these days, but for jaw-dropping style that spans a generation, Bang and Olufsen takes the gold medal by a mile.

Their cre­den­tials? Let’s start with a small, super­fi­cial exam­ple: Bose makes luxury car stereos for high end Fords and VWs, B&O makes the stereo for the Audi R8, and Aston Mar­t­ian V12 Van­tage. (that’s better) Beyond that, their prod­ucts are often so dis­tinc­tive, they don’t put any badge on the front. If you have a Sony TV you can tell, because its a big silver logo right below the screen. If you have a TV made by B&O, you can tell because it looks like no other TV on earth… and because you’ll be broke after buying it.

That’s all very impres­sive stuff. But any new-​money, design obsessed brand with deep pock­ets can make crazy stuff. (Delo­rian anyone?) The reason B&O is design brand­ing roy­alty is they’ve spent the last 30+ years making prod­ucts with cut­ting edge tech­nol­ogy and design… and their design lan­guage has barely budged. You could place their 1970s turntable in a show­room along side their modern prod­ucts and have a hard time find­ing anyone who’d think it seems out of place. Their design aes­thetic for the last 30 years: min­i­mal lines and phyco futur­is­tic. It’s a bold strat­egy since most people don’t live in the space sta­tion from 2001, but it works for them. Here’s one of my favorite designs:

When I’m design­ing an iden­tity for a client, this is what I’m ulti­mately after. I try not to get caught up in the fash­ion of the moment or short term effect. I define brand­ing suc­cess as a com­pany designed so well, they remain aes­thet­i­cally rel­e­vant for at least 10 years.

Designers everywhere are starting to rejoice as the online community steadily marches towards an internet where typography can be displayed with the beauty and functionality demonstrated in printed material. Now the real fun begins!

What’s the worst part about design­ing online? The fuzzy res­o­lu­tion? The unpre­dictable browser window size? The insan­ity of mul­ti­ple browsers dis­play­ing lay­outs mul­ti­ple ways? Those are all pretty bad, but the thing that gives me gray hair is the awful way type is ren­dered. There’s no kern­ing, no lig­a­tures, and no real font choices. This prim­i­tive form of text was great for the basic infor­ma­tion orig­i­nal browsers were built for. It is even pass­able for the web as we view it on a casual basis today. But, as the online world grows, web design becomes more and more life­like and little short­com­ings that seemed small when we were just happy to be online, become glar­ing arti­facts sur­rounded by bright color images from high res­o­lu­tion dis­plays. Lucky, there are a lot of smart folks out there work­ing day and night to give us all better type online.

The Horizon

Sooner than you think, web pages will be able to dis­play incred­i­bly smooth fonts that design­ers choose from an enor­mous cat­a­log. When nec­es­sary, the fonts will con­tain lig­a­tures, mul­ti­ple char­ac­ter sets, and beau­ti­ful details you never thought pixels could deliver. With CSS3 down the road break­ing para­graphs into columns, hyphen­at­ing words and doing proper full jus­ti­fi­ca­tion will be as common as it cur­rently is in brochure design. If your not famil­iar with the tech­ni­cal end of type design, I can sum­ma­rize this para­graph by saying, web pages will look so good, you will barely real­ize you are online.

The People Who Make It Happen

There was a time when I believed that most devel­op­ers in the web world were most inter­ested in the linear deliv­ery of infor­ma­tion. I thought they rolled their eyes at flash and fancy designs because they simply didn’t see the rel­e­vance to their single minded cause.

Turns out I was pretty short sighted. I’ve met tons of devel­op­ers in the past few years who truly care about good design and appre­ci­ate how much better it can make their sites. They are work­ing very hard to increase the form and func­tion of the web. They also seem to under­stand that if the web is all about con­tent, then typog­ra­phy that dis­plays the con­tent is at the center of web design. That’s why sev­eral groups are cur­rently devel­op­ing stan­dards and build­ing sup­port to give us the online type we deserve.

Tech­niques for improv­ing the fonts we have to work with on the web have been around for some time. There are always the tech­niques of image replace­ment and sIFR to improve text ren­der­ing on the web but these tech­niques have relied on trick­ery to get the job done and while inno­v­a­tive they are not per­ma­nent solu­tions. One of the com­pa­nies lead­ing the way for better typog­ra­phy on the web is Microsoft. They devel­oped the stan­dard for embed­ding fonts in web­sites some time ago and it unfor­tu­nately hasn’t taken off. Safari has upped the game and added sup­port for embed­ded fonts too, with a slight dif­fer­ence from Microsoft (I’ll talk about that later). Mozilla has been push­ing type for­ward in a dif­fer­ent way with the latest 3.0 ver­sion having sup­port for lig­a­tures and kern­ing in cer­tain types of fonts.

The Hang-ups

As much as the new stuff being devel­oped excites us, the web world has its unique set of prob­lems when it comes to evo­lu­tion. In print work, advances in print­ing presses and layout pro­grams could instantly be seen in work that was dis­trib­uted to the masses. Web design relies on each indi­vid­ual user to have a com­puter, mon­i­tor, browser, and most impor­tantly the fonts that are all suit­able to your work. This means even though new browsers make great things pos­si­ble, it is irre­spon­si­ble to build sites that can’t been seen by some people.

One of the major issues with embed­ding fonts is licens­ing issues. What’s to stop people from includ­ing a font file in the site that just about anyone could down­load and then use? Microsoft with their Embed­ded Open­Type stan­dard has devel­oped a system that incor­po­rates DRM for the embed­ded font. Fonts on your system hold an extra piece of infor­ma­tion in them that tells the com­puter if they can be used in a pro­grams inter­face for text ren­der­ing. Microsoft’s tool reads this bit and makes a new font file out of a True­Type font and includes the license infor­ma­tion for account­abil­ity in the file. Safari’s imple­men­ta­tion is much dif­fer­ent in that it links to any True­Type font you want to embed. While this is great and opens up the amount of fonts avail­able by a wide margin, to avoid licens­ing issues you would have to stick to free and open source font faces.

Another prob­lem with embed­ded fonts is a lack of sup­port in browser imple­men­ta­tion. Safari and Inter­net Explorer are the only two browsers to imple­ment embed­ded type. Fire­fox and Opera are work­ing to imple­ment embed­ded type in the next ver­sion of their browsers. With those browsers at least a year away and browser upgrade cycles being quite slow we prob­a­bly wont see wide­spread use of embed­ded fonts for at least another 3 years.

You can follow the progress and drama behind embed­ded fonts on the web in a couple of places. Fontem​bed​ding.com is a web­site started by Microsoft that is trying to build sup­port for the Embed­d­a­ble Open­Type format. Web​fonts.info is a site that col­lects arti­cles and keeps track of embed­ded font sup­port in all the major browsers. The Open​Type.info blog is a also a great resource for the latest devel­op­ments regard­ing typog­ra­phy in browsers.

The Revolution Is Starting Anyway

Most of the exper­i­ments going on to bring good type online are still a ways off. But good design has never been born out of tech­nol­ogy. Design is always about solv­ing a prob­lem within bound­aries. Lots of folks are off to the races build­ing sites that do a great job of work­ing with the lim­ited tool box we already have in cre­ative ways. Of course, this is a huge inspi­ra­tion to guys like me. So I’d like to point out a few cur­rent heroes:

THE SEED CON­FER­ENCE SITE
The idea that we treat every web site like a brochure, a book, or a sheet of paper is a tough one to get over. The fact is, in spite of all out typo­graphic con­straints, there is great free­dom in design­ing for a canvas that can do lots of things noth­ing else can do. The good people at Coudal and Part­ners prove that with this beau­ti­ful site announc­ing the 2008 Seed Con­fer­ence. Their solu­tion is so obvi­ous it hits you over the head with bril­liance. They simply made a poster with all the con­fer­ence infor­ma­tion. Why have links and unnec­es­sary nav­i­ga­tion if you can get it all in one spot. And why worry about a “design look” when you can simply design the whole page with the infor­ma­tion. This site wins the award for making you forget you are on a web­site. www.​seed​con​fer​ence.com

QUIP­SOL­OGY
Not con­tent to let the web  devel­op­ers have all the fun, the east coast design com­mu­nity is lead­ing the way with inter­ac­tive design that is pur­pose­ful and beau­ti­ful. Under Con­sid­er­a­tion has been out in front with great blogs and a very fresh approach online for years. No where is their fear­less spirit more appar­ent than the inno­v­a­tive Quip­sol­ogy blog. Why write a ton when you know you just want to say “check out this cool thing right here” And that’s all this blog does. a few lines and a link. To match that inno­v­a­tive approach they built a blog like no other. www.​quip​sol​ogy.com

JON TAN­GER­INE
What hap­pens when a web designer with a love for type is giving unlim­ited time and com­plete cre­ative con­trol to work on a site? You get to see the edge of type refine­ment with cur­rent tech­nol­ogy. At first glace, you’ll see that the site is clean and well orga­nized. Look closer and you’ll start notic­ing little details like his logo which is actu­ally made of web text!the site is billed as a work in progress, so keep check­ing back to see what Jon will do next. www.​jon​tan​ger​ine.com

THE SHOW
Alright, here’s one more just for fun. This is actu­ally not a new design at all. I remem­ber seeing this a few years back when I was first get­ting into design­ing online. I was floored by the cre­ativ­ity, sim­plic­ity and audac­ity of this Coudal cre­ation. While most design firms were still trying to figure out what their loader ani­ma­tion should look like, these guys were chang­ing all the rules. If web design were rock and roll, this site would be Smells Like Teen Spirit. Here, Coudal proves big type looks cheesy, really big type looks awe­some. www.​theshowlive.com

A friend tipped me off to an out­stand­ing col­lect­ing of work from artist Chris­t­ian Faur whole made pix­elized por­traits entirely out of crayons. It’s not exactly ground­break­ing avant garde, but it is an impres­sive feet, and worth a look. You can see the whole Crayon Series here.

Thanks to mud­puppy for the tip.

What happens when you blend weird, laid back Austin style with a classic Texas eating institution? It all explodes into post-modern barbecue perfection you have to visit to fully appreciate.

Comfort Food

This week­end, Jay and I ran in the Austin Half Marathon. On the fol­low­ing day, we limped down to Guatalupe and 2nd Street to indulge in some post race bar­be­cue at the famous Austin hot spot, Lam­berts. We were pre­pared for world class food, and they didn’t dis­ap­point. What I wasn’t expect­ing, was some of the best brand­ing I’ve seen in a long time.

Style and Substance

I could go on for a para­graph about the way they blend smoky ware­house style with 50s modern flare. And the food? It’s just as cre­ative as the atmos­phere, and tasty enough to be included in Texas Monthly’s pres­ti­gious list of top BBQ in Texas. The next time your in down­town Austin, you should make a pil­grim­age of your own.

lam​bert​saustin.com

I’m asth­matic, so the prospect of our city ban­ning smok­ing in restau­rants and bars is one I can get behind on a prac­ti­cal level. But on an emo­tional level, the look of smoke pass­ing though rays of dim light in strange pat­terns is so tied to night life, I’ll have trou­ble let­ting it go. This is a great exam­ple from an unknown pho­tog­ra­pher posted on fff­found.

Appar­ently, storm troop­ers are being issued Lotus Exige com­pany cars. I may have to con­sider my alle­giance to the empire. I’m gen­er­ally opposed to squash­ing rebel­lions and squash­ing defense­less Ewoks… but on the other hand, that is a pretty sweet car.

Thanks to fff­found for the tip.

A few months back, I ran across a blog post from Kit­sune Noir with pic­tures of a one-​of-​a-​kind Ralph Lauren shop in his neigh­bor­hood. The store is a con­verted auto shop filled with high style motor­cy­cle cul­ture aes­thetic that would fool Brando. He snapped some covert pics before being asked to leave. The photos show the lengths the RRL folks have gone to “keep it real”.

The blog also ref­er­enced a sim­i­lar pro­gram from J Crew con­vert­ing a liquor store into a fly-​by-​night vin­tage bou­tique that just hap­pens to be filled with grimy ver­sions of the J Crew brand. The pic­tures show its a mil­lion miles from the crisp clean shop in my local mall.

My first reac­tion is out­rage. How dare they invade my dirty vin­tage sub­cul­ture with this lie of a store? I did a fea­ture post a while back about the fail­ure of Ben­negans and Steak & Ale. I hypoth­e­sized that the idea of a man­u­fac­tured expe­ri­ence was fading away as the next gen­er­a­tion of con­sumers grows up and begins spend­ing. But from the per­spec­tive of Ralph Lauren and J Crew, I’m start­ing to see their point.

I assume they are trying some­thing new because they are notic­ing a decline in sales from the demo­graphic the “fake vintage” shops are tar­get­ing. If they simply stayed true to who they their decline will con­tinue. They are simply trying to sur­vive. And hon­estly, it looks like a nice store. I’m also impressed that they took an older run down loca­tion that was in decline and turned it into some­thing useful. This form of recy­cling seems just as affec­tive as a real vin­tage store.

Don’t get, me wrong, I still wouldn’t shop there, but I see where they are coming from and respect their solu­tion to a chal­leng­ing prob­lem. Some pic­tures of the RRL & Co and J Crew bou­tiques below:

Spe­cial thanks to Bobby Solomon for the tip and the photos. He has a great blog full of cool stuff like this.

We hear a lot about suburb devel­op­ments ven­tur­ing into nat­ural habi­tats and being invaded by wildlife. I think this pic­ture brings it home pretty well. Per­haps this girls par­ents should have sprung for the 8 foot fence instead?

Thanks to fff­found for the tip.

Sporting events always give designers a chance to screw around a little. An event design is only used once so its ok to make it blingy and dated. There are also tons of them every year so you don’t have to treat it like such a precious specimen. Lastly, sports design is typically pretty ugly. So if you happen to make a dog no one will really notice.

…well, almost no one. The New York Times—in all it’s New-York-ness—decided to do a little design navel-​gazing. They asked design heavy­weights to wax poetic for a bit about the Super­bowl icons and what they have meant as a reflec­tion of Amer­i­can con­sumerist por­trait over… (I’m boring myself )

Anyway, halfway though the arti­cle I fig­ured the Times had missed the point, but then I saw their Pièce de résistance: a design con­test! Sure you can ask hot shots what they think and listen to them sip wine from the side­line. But its better just to let them duke it out in a public arena. Lets see how they did:

We lead things off with a fine effort by gruge-​a-​licious Seat­tle design­ers at Modern Dog. This is a tough and graphic take on the tra­di­tional Super­bowl style:

Armin Vit, who I love, obvi­ously forgot The Super­bowl is a cham­pi­onship game for MENS foot­ball:

I’ve seen Felix Sock­well speak and though he was pretty wild, but this logo proves when its all theory and no prac­ti­cal­ity, he can go bat-​ass crazy:

If some­one asked my who should do the Super­bowl logo, I’d have told them Draplin. Good old fash­ion mid-​western design for the common man. Yes, it looks like an Atari game, but is that such a bad thing:

OK, so Julia Hoff­man decided the Super­bowl was all about food and decided to be cute. I’m sure Julia is a lovely designer. But I’m also pretty sure she’s never watched a Super­bowl and lives on tofu:

There can only be one winner… and its Pen­ta­gram by a mile. The red and blue hel­mets rep­re­sent the two con­fer­ences com­pet­ing for the Lom­bardi Trophy which is depicted in the neg­a­tive space. It makes since, its beau­ti­ful, its cool, and its tough:

I’ve got to admit, as much as I love the Pen­ta­gram con­cept, I still prefer the cur­rent logo. I know its a little “Bank of Amerrica” (and who wants to look like them right now), but it’s a nice bal­anced logo. Not too over the top, but still blingy enough to be painted on the side of a Hummer. A per­fect state­ment for the modern NFL.

Orange you glad you checked our blog today?

This is an impres­sive job turn­ing an orange into a lik­able little char­ac­ter either saving a friend from a blender, or drag­ging a fellow fruit to its death. Since you can’t tell which way he’s facing, you’ll have to decide. (which could tell you a lot about your­self.) This is one of a series of play­ful images from this group. I wish I could tell you more about the cre­ators, but the web­site is hope­lessly Russian.

Thanks to fff­found for the tip.