School Day 1.0

Aug 31, 2009

Backpacks, notebooks, and leather shoes in need of a firm breaking-in; even if years are significant since the days when there was a purchase protocol for attending school, the metaphors for tradition are no less vivid.

More than 60 years ago, Silas Rhodes and Burne Hogarth founded the Cartoonists and Illustrators School with three faculty members and 35 students, creating a model whereby faculty were working professionals and courses were held at night. This model allowed students to work during the days, brushing up on professional skills if desired. By blurring boundaries between the profession and academia, the founders set pace for art education going forward. They, simply, started a tradition. (more…)

Typedia Live

Aug 25, 2009

Yesterday was a landmark day for type (and type enthusiasts everywhere), as Typedia, a shared encyclopedia of typefaces, was unveiled. Typedia has been in development since 2006 when Jason Santa Maria first had the idea, and I’ve been watching him masterfully pull together the project since.

It’s really an honor to have been part of this kind of team, having the privilege to watch structure and design unfold as ideas and form take shape. Weighing in on features like the Forum (how much do people want to participate?), the Add section (how many fields are too many?), and Good Deeds (how can we engage people to add more?) were enormously interesting to be a part of early on. (more…)

Ode To Vowels

Jun 26, 2009

When yesterday I got an email signed “rgds,” a trite valediction closing an email to a group of professionals, I stopped. Rgds? Really? Was the email author intending to communicate a familiarity with his audience by dropping the vowels, or simply just a level of tired sophistication with the keyboard—too familiar with typing that vowels were an interference and, therefore, a waste of time between us. Or was it simply that everything is now bound by constraints even when we are constraintless?

No matter the reason, vowels are the victims, and it seemed fitting to compose a quick ode in response. (more…)

The Summer Build

Jun 1, 2009

When it’s clear summer has officially dethroned spring to become the sole proprietor of the season, my thoughts immediately turn to tradition. Tradition, as a condition of summer integrity, is crucial as it begets the connections between idleness and frenzy, between new and old, and between intellectual stimulation and lazy creativity. But no matter what the parameters, one thing is consistent from summer to summer — the critical nature of the prefix “re.”

You see, the prefix “re,” borrowed from Latin meaning “again” or even “again and again,” signals the critical cadence of summer, as summer is perhaps the underdog season of tradition itself. As footloose as we imagine ourselves in summer — barefoot and lightly clothed (apologies, San Francisco) — it’s actually replete with rituals as rigorous as the December shopping season. “Re” is affixed to just about every activity, signaling a return to familiarity, a reset, and our revelry in it. (more…)

The Statute of Deletions

Mar 21, 2009

Inbox Zero. To get to the unimaginable, unattainable place only reserved for the likes of those disciplined enough or courageous enough to manage it, one has to be comfortable with “delete.” Delete as a colloquial term is fairly recent, but as part of our language and social structure, the concept of deleting is clearly not. We’ve been promptly disposing of items that others have prepared for us for centuries.

Why then, does one feel like an utter failure when one must delete an email without having taken action on it? Are there precedents for these defeatist feelings in other aspects of our lives that we can draw upon? (more…)

On the Road, Close to Home

Mar 12, 2009

I’m only doing a few conferences this spring and summer, as I’m focusing most of my attention on building the new master’s program. But starting tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading to the SXSW Interactive Festival, the not-to-be-missed get-together, where I’ll be attending for the fourth time. (more…)

Marks and Milestones

Jan 6, 2009

January marks a fresh start for many, but for the MFA Interaction Design program, it marks a milestone in our development. We’re receiving our first round of applications January 15 — just under two weeks away. I’m delighted at the prospect of reviewing the first candidates for the MFA in Interaction Design program’s inagural class this fall. In the meantime, the department is busy with some upcoming events. (more…)

Anatomy of a Salutation

Dec 30, 2008

Salutations have three simple purposes in email. They are the greeting, the email handshake. They set the tone and tempo for the communication that follows. And they establish a hierarchy, depending on whether the writer attaches a title (e.g., “Professor,” “Miss”), thereby creating a formal separation, or a lack thereof.

We know this; many of us have been writing some form of email now for nearly two decades.

But what we may not realize is that when an individual offers a salutation, he or she is not going through some formal motions. He or she is engaged in an activity of relationship-building. A variety of salutations will likely be used over the course of an email correspondence, and their evolution reveals something about the developing relationship (or the perceived one) between the correspondents. Just as you wouldn’t ignore body language that indicates whether someone is intending to shake your hand or high-five you, nor should you ignore email-greeting intentions — no matter how well you know someone. (more…)

Life in Perpetual Beta

Dec 22, 2008

Melissa Pierce, the documentary filmmaker who is exploring the link between authenticity and creativity, recently sat me down to inquire about my own take on the matter for her upcoming film, Life in Perpetual Beta. Whether there is a link between finding what is authentic and what is creative, I’m still not certain.

To me, part of the answer is vaguely reminiscent of John Dewey’s pursuit of the link between perception and recognition, a topic I’ve brought up too many times to mention again here. For my own creative moves forward, however, I know I’m remaining authentic if I don’t get too comfortable, which it seems became the focus for the cut for the film clip here. (more…)

Investigating Invisibles: An Interview with Elliott Malkin

Sep 12, 2008

Even if you’re trying to find one, the connections among Elliott Malkin‘s body of work are hard to see. Part family history, part science project, part home-movie, his projects span genres that, initially, seem incidental. Yet many of his web-based projects—whether they investigate “butterfly vision” or install digital graffiti throughout lower Manhattan—are connected in one simple way: they all explore unofficial signals in public space. Taking on the invisible and the imagined, his projects invite viewers to imagine things that operate beyond their perception. (more…)

From Sig To Noise: Misforgivings of the Mobile Signature

Jul 24, 2008

You can spot the novices immediately. Any expert emailer knows when to (and when not to) use a proper email signature when composing a mail. That automatic addendum that mail clients allow makes emailers both creatures of efficiency, and freaks of a sort, revealing personal datapoints to recipients without pause. Phone number, fax number, mobile number, home number, company name, job title, favorite inspirational quote — all at once. Most times, frankly, it’s a bit too much too soon. (more…)