Aw man, Gary Hustwit's Objectified is going to be like oxygen for every designer!

Here:

• Ars Technica
• CNet News
• Engadget
• Gizmodo [autorefresh]
• Mac Observer [autorefresh]
• MacDailyNews [autorefresh]
• Macworld
• TUAW
• TechCrunch

Yeah.

"So by this time you might be wondering just what’s wrong with plain old 'Design'? Why does it always need to be qualified with another buzzword of the year? [...] Innovation or transformation, Design speaks for itself. It will in 2009, too."

Conternotions on Bruce Nussbaum's 'Innovation' is Dead. Herald The Birth of 'Transformation' as The Key Concept for 2009 stunt.

Gruber's Macworld Expo 2009 Predictions lineup.

"My doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment."

Steve Jobs in a letter addressed to Apple community.

Chapter closed.

Tommy Oshima's Tanatos - Apocrypha. Unmistakable.

Appended Cassandra's Dream and Vicky Cristina Barcelona opening titles to Woody Allen's typography post.

They're both compliant: white Windsor on black, alright.

"The problem is that every rule related to, or governing, design is ultimately ridiculous," says Ridiculousdesignrules.com.

Hmm, if all design rules are ridiculous, doesn't it mean that design itself is ultimately ridiculous? And designers a bunch of nihilistic caricatures?

In my view, rules are to be obeyed, dismissed, broken or improved, but never ridiculed. Laughing at all design rules, dictums and mantras can only splinter an already disjointed professional ethos.

Thanks, Adrian.

Not a great year, 2008. Not the worse, but not jolly good either.

Here's the year 2008 in photographs [part 1 of 3].

Thanks, Iancu.

The highest effectiveness per line of dialogue ratio: #2.

Here's the full list.

Undrln is "sort of like Digg or Reddit but for advertising and graphic design." Gruber.

Oh man, I'm so tired of this naming scheme. It was cool back when Flickr did it, now it's not.

Via DF.

The NYTimes show of 2008 ideas, from A to Z.

2008 brought us some truly outstanding bad ideas but NYTimes got only the good ones covered—that's a shame.

Core77 recommends, you pay. Easy.

Schools of thought regarding magazines asking for free pictures:

• Photos not being too different from quotes so press can have them for free;
• Photos are more like written articles so press cannot have them for free, obviously;
• Fuck them, is too low class to debate!

Time Magazine trolling for free pictures on Flickr.

Via Tom Coates.

"Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep." Translated from Japanese.

Just wait and you'll see some weird, really weird stuff on those youtubes!

"While everyone seems to be on the search for the God-Particle I looked for the basic elements of the classic comic characters."

Cartoon Particles.

"With the usual exceptions, people on Twitter tend to fall into two main camps. There are responders, who use Twitter as a channel to interact heavily with other users, and broadcasters, who use it primarily as a micro-blogging platform.

These groups don’t necessarily get along. Responders will tell you that broadcasters are condescending talking heads who think they’re too good for the community. Broadcasters wish responders would take their nonsensical patter to a chat room, where they could natter on in privacy. Everyone agrees that members of the other group are total jackasses who don’t know how to use Twitter."

From Margaret Mason’s Twitter Etiquette Article.

It's a complicated world out there, folks!

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales.

Read the rest of quotes on simplicity and concision at Dangerous Intersection.

Via DF.

"It’s funny to see the ampersand creeping into the Russian usage... Apparently, it is being associated with things ‘Western’, ‘capitalist’, &c. And it looks so chic in the Cyrillic context. Some ad agencies just love it. Incidentally, the Russian for ‘and’ is the i (yes, that ‘inverted N’, U+0418 and U+0438), and the meaning of the ampersand (& = et) is completely lost on the Russians. But who cares? It is so cute."

Maxim Zhukov at Typophile.

"That, is what using [Adobe] Reader creates in so many people. Low-level misery and a slight tarnish on your soul." John C. Welch.

Well, it tarnishes my soul with its mystifyingly crappy anti-aliasing.

Ad agency people should repeat "I'll try not to be such an ad-land controversy whore anymore" a hundred times over, while client should keep a "we were morons for not blocking access from non-fast-food nations" poster on the office wall after this one.

Condescending asshats.

Via @RaduCeuca.

Somebody actually compiled a list of design industry identities: 100 Brands of Interest.

And I found Brandient in there. Good.

Via @LogoMotives.

Yeah, I thought so.

Via @ilovetypography.

Obsessing over typography? Browse and test FontShop typefaces on your iPhone (or iPod Touch) with FontShuffle.

The Release of Pricu, a final episode in "Aiud Prison" series by Cosmin Bumbuț. Epic work!

Previously on the same subject.

Don't forget to bookmark Bumbuț' blog.

Update: Cosmin pulls the series — it was a raw and unedited preview. Sorry.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Starship Enterprise or mmm... a pig?

Thanks, VuduCat.

It took us a gazillion years to evolve into this. Just great.

Via Tom Coates.

"For the first time, iPhone sales exceeded sales of Microsoft Windows Mobile devices worldwide and in North America," Gartner reports.

Paging Mr. Ballmer.

"The art director and I would brew a gigantic pot of coffee around 9 a.m. to help us get through the day. The pot would simmer in the coffeemaker, and through evaporation the coffee strengthened noticeably at lunchtime.

In the evening hours, the remaining coffee had turned to a black concoction with a stinging smell and tar-like taste. We endured it without flinching." Christoph Niemann about Coffee.

Sounds familiar?

Via BrandlyYours.

“We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate,” Apple spokesman Bill Evans, told Macworld. “The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.”

Removed — but not before the KnowledgeBase article stirred up some hysteria.

If Brăduț crisscrosses Asia these days, Tudor writes about (and photographs) his journey through Africa.

Thanks, NeaGrigore.

"ALL CAPS is still cool, but most importantly, she also no can has cheezburger." Historical break-through finding: a proto-lolcat was discovered in good shape.