Found type from Mallorca

I always keep an eye out for interesting type when I’m in a foreign city, here are a few finds from my recent trip to Mallorca. More of my photos from Mallorca are on Flickr.

Instagram snaps

A few of my recent favourites. I’m sure Instagram isn’t for everyone but I really like it. See some more on flickr.

Bridget Riley: Flashback

After staring for too long at one of Bridget Riley’s paintings yesterday I started feeling a bit queasy. Her work at real-life scale had an intensely physical effect, something I hadn’t experienced before, I muttered something about feeling like I’d been stabbed in the eyes.

As much as I was impressed by the power of the optical illusions it was the execution of the work that really appealed to me, the lines are so accurate and precise. I was really drawn to the small studies in gouache on graph paper, I could imagine sitting for hours with a fine paint brush tracing endless perfect lines in beautiful gradient colours, that’s my kind of thing.

The exhibition is at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 5 June – Sunday 5 September 2010.

U&lc Influencing design & typography

I got this book for Christmas so I’m a few months late posting it… I have to admit I was quite disappointed with the design of the book itself but certainly not with the gorgeous content, it’s a must if you’re a Herb Lubalin fan. There are a few more photos on my flickr.

I have an iPad

Yes I do. I’ve had it for about five days now, just about long enough to get to know it and find some decent apps.

As an interaction designer I need to have an iPad, well that was my justification and it is true, but actually I just really wanted one. I decided that I couldn’t live without one when I was trying to read an article on the sofa on my MacBook pro. I suddenly pictured myself curled up with an iPad in my hand, instead of a hot heavy MacBook on my lap.

So now I have one, what do I think of it?

Unboxing it was a pleasure of course, as is the custom with a shiny new apple product, and the iPad is beautifully designed. Actually, It makes my iPhone look a bit cheap in comparison. It feels exactly the right size, and it’s slightly lighter than I thought it might be, but it’s still a little too heavy to hold comfortably for very long. The best position seems to be reclining a bit with the iPad resting on your legs. It’s also perfect for reading in bed of course or just resting on a table top… as you can probably tell, I’m finding it hard to put down.

Touch on the smooth glossy screen is pleasing and feels natural and intuitive to me, it’s much the same as an iPhone. I’ve been caught out a few times by things that don’t look ‘tappable’ (clickable) so I’m now following the assumption that everything can be tapped before I go hunting in settings and menus.

I didn’t expect typing on the iPad to be as easy or comfortable as it is. It keeps up well and the autocorrect does a good job of adding punctuation and picking up typos. It may well make me lazy though! I’m writing this post on it and I’m probably about as quick and accurate as I would be on a regular keyboard, and other than gaining a bit more screen I can’t see the need for an additional keyboard.

As I’m planning to use my iPad for reading, finding a good RSS reader that syncs with google reader was a priority. Not only that but it needed to have a nice icon too, and most of them don’t. I’m a designer, don’t judge me! My Times is my chosen app (for now at least), it’s everything I want except it requires a connection to work. I’ve made a few other selective app choices but I don’t really feel the need to fill the iPad with apps, browsing the Internet with Safari is more than good enough on most sites. I’ll post about my favourite apps soon. They all have nice icons.

In 5 days there’s only been one occasion where I’ve missed something because the iPad doesn’t support flash. Even Youtube videos play in Safari (the new made over Youtube player is a vast improvement on the old one too).

I have one gripe, the styling of the native apps is heavily based on the metaphor of real life objects. Especially details like the little torn off pieces of paper in the corner of a notepad. In real life if little pieces of paper are left behind I pick them off, so this really bothers me! But as Marco Arment writes in a post called Overdoing the Interface Metaphor, this extends further than aesthetics, when you mimic real life objects you’re not only replicating their advantages you’re also replicating their failings. I much prefer the minimal look of apps like Helvetinote, I’d love the option to delete all the native apps and replace them with my own choices.

The more I use the iPad the more I discover that it isn’t as limited as I expected, there’s at least a workaround for most things I need to do, except actually working. But then I didn’t buy it to work on.

Brown & White cards

Print is scarily permanent for a digital designer like me, I obsessively checked the details before we sent our cards to print and still had that heart stopping moment when they arrived, I thought I’d got my phone number wrong, thankfully I hadn’t. Despite the terror, turning digital files in real, tangible objects is incredibly satisfying, and something I think I’d like to do more of.

Our cards were beautifully printed by Generation Press, on 625gsm Dutch Grey Board, with debossed foil block lettering. If we know you in real life you’ve probably had one thrust into your hand already, sorry about that, we’re just really pleased with them!

Lemon pants cake

I really wanted to make Lemon Meringue Cupcakes this weekend (with a blow torched meringue topping!) but I was missing the key ingredient, lemon curd. So instead I found this recipe for Lemon Cake which uses really basic ingredients, it’s a lovely lemony fix. And I’ve just realised that slice of cake looks like a pair of pants!

Update: I’ve made the Lemon Meringue Cupcakes and they are possibly the best thing I’ve ever baked! Sadly I didn’t photograph them, damn, I’ll have to make some more.

GP is 10

When Generation Press sent us a pack of samples they also very kindly sent us one of their limited edition GP10 Mailers too. Created as a gift to thank customers for their support for the past 10 years, the mailer features contributions by Build, Sanna Annukka, Timothy Saccenti & John O’Reilly. You can see my photos on flickr, although I think everyone who received the mailer has already photographed theirs well before me!

And here are a few brown foil samples for the Brown card, mmm colour samples…

Flown away

This looks like a shiny, brand new blog, but really it’s not. It’s the theme I customised for my previous blog, And fly away from here, which was hacked last week. My fault for not upgrading wordpress, silly me. But rather than reinstate And fly away I decided to use it as an excuse to change the domain and strip out some of my old posts, they weren’t displaying properly with the current theme. I’d been considering a name change anyway because I was planning a slight shift in the content I post, this new blog will have similar content but also be more reflective of my thoughts and opinions. That’s the plan anyway. My next few posts here will be recent posts from And fly away, then it’s on with the new.