The corn husker is a device that was designed to do one thing and to do it really, really well. It was probably developed over decades, maybe even hundreds of years, as each successive generation of farmers tweaked the device to make it more efficient and easier to use, better designed to do exactly what needs to be done. These are two images of corn huskers from the National Heritage Center in New South Wales, Australia (1, 2), half a world away from North Carolina and yet very similar  to the ones we used this weekend. You place the dried corn into the chute and turn the handle. The spikes both push the kernels off the cob and pull the cob further down the chute. The cob then hits the bottom piece and the wheel pushes it sideways, up, and out of the device. I’d never seen this device before, but after using it to husk about 3 ears of corn I was a pro: you have to turn it clockwise so that it pulls the corn downward, don’t use your hand to push the cob down – it will catch the corn on its own after a few turns, and if you keep turning at the end the device will push the empty husk out all by itself. My 5-year-old niece was able to use the device unassisted, as long as I reminded her which direction to turn.

The software design process is very different from the process that produced that corn husker. The development cycles are faster, the developers aren’t always the users, and technology changes so quickly that software quickly becomes out of date and obsolete.  The best software is software that has gone through many, many revisions by the people that use it the most and know it best. Every software release makes the software more efficient and easier to use, better designed to do exactly what needs to be done. But many software developers focus on adding new features every release, without always taking the time to perfect the original, core features of the software, and so the software gradually gets more and more complex until it becomes very difficult to learn.

If every all software applications, electronic gadgets and consumer product were as well designed as this corn husker, we would all work more efficiently, and I’d be out of a job. Wouldn’t that be a great world to live in?

Many audience members wanted our solution implemented across the Triangle to jump-start awareness and increase recycling. HumanCentric is very excited about the community support and would love to have our vision for a better recycling system become a reality. If you would like to join our campaign for a greener Triangle please contact Alexander Hussain at HumanCentric. HumanCentric’s next steps are to connect local government officials to present our improved recycling solution.

Over the past few years, we have had great success in generating design concepts and refined concept renderings using only Adobe Illustrator. You can develop certain techniques in Illustrator that let you create incredibly detailed and visually appealing product renderings in significantly less time than it would take to accomplish in other programs like Alias or SolidWorks. In the long run it ends up saving the client time and $$. The image above is a rendering that I did a while back using only Illustrator. If you really want to have your mind blown away, check out some of the work that Yukio Miyamoto has done.

Interview Project is a road trip documentary presented by David Lynch and directed by his son Austin.

Austin Lynch and his team traveled across the United States and interviewed people they met along the way. They traveled 20,000 miles over 70 days. They met people mowing yards, riding bikes, going to church, and drinking in bars. The road trip started in Needles, CA and is currently in Baton Rouge, LA. Interviews are usually 3 or 4 minutes long and are released online every three days. Today’s interview is #29. There will be 121 interviews when it’s over.

So, what makes Interview Project so great?

Well, the interviews, of course. Every subject relays a very personal story. Some of these stories are funny and some are heart-breaking but all are very interesting. Releasing one interview every three days seems like the perfect pacing. Anything more and I might feel a bit overwhelmed. Anything less and I would probably lose interest. David Lynch introduces every interview in his own unique way. Interviews are accompanied by great music. The website, built by Knowawall, features simple navigation, an interactive map, audio previews, and, randomly enough, the ability to invert the color scheme. I could go on and on.

It’s not too late to catch up. If you’re looking for a hook, my favorite interviews so far are probably Palmer Black and The Calloways.

It’s hard to listen to traditional media outlets and not be inundated with the doom and gloom of our current economic condition. I was listening to new albums in the car for a few weeks and I almost thought the recession was over, but then I switched back to NPR. And it wasn’t. However, in all the reports I’ve heard, one piece of info stands out. It said, historically, recessions and depressions are times of drastic social and economic change.

Perfect.

As a designer all I can see is opportunity; the American Dream does need a tune-up. We have been striving for something attainable, but not sustainable. The housing bubble may have been the first to burst, but the banks weren’t far behind and now, with the auto industry, unemployment is continuing to rise. The whole consumption machine is starting to go down. It just wasn’t built to last. Now considering the damage it’s already done to our global ecosystems, I don’t really see this as a bad thing. What I do see is an unemployed workforce that is tech savvy, connected, diverse and pretty well-educated. One that has all the tools needed to get the job done, as long as it can get a little inspiration and motivation to boot.

I say we use this opportunity to design a dream that is sustainable; one that doesn’t leave us with global warming, obesity, addiction and debt. One that gives us more control over the natural resources we consume, more control over the substances we put into our bodies, and more control over where our money goes when we spend it.

I think this means we need to do more for ourselves.

And I’ve got some ideas as to how.

I don’t really collect anything. When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards, but so did everybody else. I do, however, have a growing stack of NYRB Classics at my house. What are NYRB Classics? They’re books. Specifically, they are “discoveries, the kind of books that people typically run into outside of the classroom and then remember for life.” Why do I have so many? In part, because the books are often fascinating reads. But mostly because I love their design.

The spines are one solid color, with just a small NYRB logo at one end and the title and author at the other. These spines jump out at you if you’re scanning shelves in a bookstore. The same spine color continues to the back where you’ll find only a description of the book and one or two quotes. That’s it.

Let’s judge a book by its cover. The primary color from the spine fills a rectangular box on the cover. Inside the box you’ll find the title and author again (in the same colors as the spine, but bigger). Next, my favorite detail. The border color from the front cover box fills both inside covers.

The box always sits on top of the cover imagery. Here the system breaks down elegantly. Some covers have photographs, others have paintings, and at least one that I know of features a frame from a movie. Without fail the imagery is striking.

All of the NYRB Classics have the same dimensions (in height and width, not length). Thus, they sit very well next to one another on a shelf.

I should note that Katy Homans is credited as the designer. Beautiful work, Katy.

Some of my favorite NYRB Classics include: Wheat That Springeth Green, The Tenants of Moonbloom, On the Yard, A Way of Life, Like Any Other, and In the Freud Archives.

For more information, there is the NYRB site, a blog, twitter, and a flickr group. If you like book design, I also recommend the Book Covers blog by FWIS.

It’s been quite some time now that I’ve been following the development of outdoor solar lights. I have always been drawn to them because of the amazing fact that they are not only off the grid but also extremely low maintenance. I’ve been waiting eagerly for a company to take advantage of this technology and integrate it into a beautiful packaging. Then along comes the Soji Modern lanterns which have made a clear statement that solar doesn’t mean techy and it doesn’t mean cheap. Solar lighting can be just as soft and delicate as tealights and even more daring because there are no open flame restrictions to deal with. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of possibilities for solar products that are beautiful and inspiring. Let us know if you find more!

Things I Like

• The Table of Contents is nice, with three columns of center-justified type and titles jumping off the page. In fact, throughout the magazine, the column headers and author names appear at the top of the page, centered, and eye-catching. The typeface is Knockout by Hoefler & Frere-Jones.
• The other new typeface is Nyte by Dino dos Santos and it’s quite beautiful – whimsical but readable.

Things I Don’t Like

They’ve trimmed the overall dimensions of the magazine by 9 percent. While Marzorati mentions that it is still one of the tallest and widest magazines in America, he calls the change regrettable and a by-product of the Great Recession. I agree that the change is regrettable. It just doesn’t quite feel like the old magazine. But, to be honest, I bet I’ll get used to the new dimensions soon enough.

Thing I Didn’t Notice

• I hate to admit this but I probably wouldn’t have noticed the new, more condensed typeface Lyon Text if Marzorati hadn’t pointed it out. They chose Lyon Text in order to fit the same amount of content on a smaller page.
• I also didn’t notice the “more contemporary color palette.” The magazine has always been beautifully designed. I didn’t think the old color palette was stale. Maybe this will become more apparent over time.
• Finally, Marzorati mentioned a new series of icons to guide people to the web. I only noticed these after going back to look for them.

In short, it must be difficult to redesign something that was already well-designed. I think the people at The New York Times have done a fantastic job.