Old building, Bucharest. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

What? I don't like Mondays.

That "one" in the headline comes from you. Design a new design principle — pretty awesome idea, isn't it!

Gaura Neagră ( Black Hole in Romanian) design blog initiated a quest to find a good 11^th rule to be added to Dieter Rams' ten principles of good design — here they are:

Good design is innovative
Good design makes a product useful
Good design is aesthetic
Good design helps us to understand a product
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is long-lasting
Good design is consequent to the last detail
Good design is concerned with the environment
Good design is as little design as possible

Iulian invited me to be the judge — I thank him kindly for this — and select the winning entry.

So jump over, hit the comments and contribute what you think would be the best continuation to the above 10 design commandments until December 4 at 23:59 and you stand a chance of winning a copy of Gary Hustwit’s hot movie Objectified.

Come on, flex your gray matter design muscle.

Update: We have a winner!

Cloister of Saint Trophimus, Arles. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

Street, Monte Carlo. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

Punctum, first issue, cover.

I think Cosmin Bumbuț first talked to me about this project—an art photography magazine—long ago, but then, during our February and March meetings this year he seem determined to really pull it off.

But that wasn't the first chapter of the project though, because Punctum¹ started as an internet forum five years ago. After the forum's demise, from November 2006 until July 2007 Punctum resurfaced as an on-line magazine. It was discontinued after 3 issues.

Now Punctum starts again—in a new league this time—as a printed trimestrial magazine with an initial print run of 2000. Its focus will be on photography as an art, featuring photography work and artist portfolios while avoiding the technical and hardware sides. A significant detail: the magazine's policy specifies that all contributions will be paid.

With editor Cosmin Bumbuţ bringing aboard collaborators like Alex Gâlmeanu, Voicu Bojan, Gicu Şerban and Elena Stancu, the magazine has enough endorsement to hit the ground running. Young publishing designer Raymond Bobar takes care of Punctum's layout.

Punctum, first issue, inside.

In the first issue: photographers Hajdu Tamás, Alexandru Tomescu, Ikuru Kuwajima, Brooks Jensen and an article on Carol Szathmari by Alex Gâlmeanu.

In stores from November 30. Godspeed!

¹ In his 1980 book Camera Lucida, the French literary critic Roland Barthes develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum: studium denoting the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph, punctum denoting the wounding, personally touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it. —From Camera Lucida entry on Wikipedia.

Decât o Revistă, cover.

From the launch of Omagiu Magazine in 2005 (noted here) nothing cool happened in the Romanian printed magazine landscape.

Until this month, that is, when Decât o Revistă (loosely translates as Just a Magazine although it fails to convey the sense of irony) hit the streets after a masterfully conducted teasing campaign mainly via social media (follow @decatorevista on Twitter or befriend it on Facebook) but not only — see the viral video about Apropo TV's T-shirts.

What sets this magazine apart is its voluntarism.

What sets this magazine apart is its voluntarism: all content was created pro bono by a core team of five people — Cristian Lupșa, Raymond Bobar, Lavinia Gliga, Gabriel Dobre and Sebastian Ispas — together with over 40 contributors, including my Brandient colleagues Bogdan Dumitrache, Eugen Erhan, Iancu Barbărasă and Ciprian Bădălan, as well as high-profile photographers Cosmin Bumbuț, Alex Gâlmeanu, Andrei Pungovschi and radio star Răzvan Exarhu.

"The cover matters" article featuring artwork by my fellow Brandient designers Bogdan Dumitrache, Iancu Barbărasă and Ciprian Bădălan.

The editorial team's intentions with Decât o Revistă project were well documented by Cristian Lupșa on his blog: quality journalism, convincing visuals, sincerity, dialogue, accomplishing more with less, testing the market, having fun. All checked, I'd say.

Raymond Bobar (Omagiu Magazine, Romanian Esquire, Romanian Men’s Health) signs the magazine's art direction and his work is excellent. For a detailed look into the design process head to his blog.

Lavinia Gliga's 10-page article on Romanian diacritics.

I am happy to note that DoR's pièce de résistance is Lavinia Gliga's 10-page — outstandingly researched — article on diacritics wherein I'm quoted for my look into Romanian diacritic marks. Thank you, Lavinia.

Just perfect. Give me more.

Update: Yes, the project will continue. Godspeed.

Parc des Ateliers, Arles. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

This mural in Arles is so weird and cool — it should be featured in 50 Most Stunning Wall Murals sort of collections.

Street, Saintes-Maries de la Mer, Camargue. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

First frame of a roll of film—this dog hopelessly pulling away in his leash, squeezed between the wall and the shadow, trying to escape the void absorbing him. Stuck, stuck, stuck forever.

Street, Arles. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

What a draining year. So uphill. So tired.

Monte Carlo. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

Just like high pressure and high temperature turns carbon rubble into an eternal diamond, that day the colossal weight of the concrete and the scorching hot air forced euphoria transmute into a crystal-clear unbreakably-hard gem of perfect alienation.

Camargue, France. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

Camargue, France. Click here or on the image to enlarge.

I stand at the window and look at the sea
Then I make me a pot of opium tea

Mr. Nick Cave said it. Reverence.