Design

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good ‘new logo sucks’ freak out

The only thing better than a new logo brouhaha is a new logo brouhaha with comicbook nerds at the heart of it. It appears that DC Comics is about to unveil a new logo. Brand New has a lot of details on the trademark filing and what not. You can see the logo is a bit of a snooze. The best thing so far about the new logo is definitely iFanboy’s remain calm post. Seriously, and I quote: “Before anyone gets too excited (or agitated), this is a small step in a much larger process and strategy. There is still a lot we don’t know and it will be a while before we see anything in production.”

Oh man, this is why comicbook nerds are some of the all-time best nerds. They’re a passionate bunch.

It’s okay to admit it, you totally want a Little Printer

After seeing posts on Kottke, Laughing Squid, Coudal Partners, Jason Santa Maria, Waxy, and Co Design, my initial thought was that BERG Cloud had the best public relations and marketing people on the planet. Then after the 821st mention of this Little Printer, I watched the video and every impulse in my paperless-kind-of-person body screamed “WANT!” It’s that clever/adorable.

The Kern Game: See if you still got it

When you’re ready for a little break in your busy monday, head on over to the Kern Game to see how good you are at kerning type. It’s a maddening and addictive little game. Oh, and all kinds of fun. I was all ready to brag when I got two 100s right in a row, but then I ended up with a dismal 79 as a final score. But 79 out of 100 for a writer, that’s not so bad right? Right? Yeah, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m going back to top that as soon as I finish this sentence.

Title Scream

Between anxiety over Adobe’s acquisition of Typekit and excitement over tomorrow’s iPhone announcement, I figured you could use a nice little escape. Enter Title Scream, a nice little collection of title screens from 8-bit and 16-bit video games. I particularly liked this gem:

Facebook breaking change to launch October 1

Facebook’s recent changes have been all over the news and the Internet, and while most Facebook users won’t care about the change coming on October 1, it does effect those of us who develop Facebook Apps.

On Saturday Facebook is upgrading their SDK for PHP and JavaScript to use OAuth 2.0, a new and more secure version of the OAuth platform. This is also what’s called a “breaking” change. That means all existing Facebook applications using the previous 2.1 PHP SDK and JavaScript need to be upgraded to the PHP 3.1.1 SDK or your Facebook App will no longer work after October 1.

One of the big effects of this is upgrade is the change to how apps access Facebook user information, which means that all Canvas and Page tab apps must convert to process signed_request (fb_sig will be removed).

Two other things to note:

• Apps that have been built using the Facebook PHP SDK 3.1.1 do not need to be changed.
• Apps that are using the old JavaScript library for authentication need to modify their code.

If you’re need to get working on these changes before anything breaks you can follow the steps from Facebook to make the upgrade.

Is too much information strangling creativity?

Are we all so sick of hearing about, talking about and/or complaining about Facebook and the new changes and the new Timeline that we could puke? Good. So you’re probably in the mood to read something else. Something that might get your thoughts flowing. I’d like to submit this article from Good for your perusal: The Top 5 Things that Bother Me About this Headline. A great piece about how information and the quest for audience hampers creativity. My favorite line: ” I wonder if I’m still a writer, or if I’m a content creator.” Ouch.

Also there’s this:

Ostensibly, having this data at our fingertips would mean that we’re producing better ideas. The more you know about what your audience wants, the better you can create stories and infographics and art for them. If writing a certain headline or choosing a certain color for a button means that the most people will get access, shouldn’t you do it? It’s an interesting question.

And if you’re super sick of anything to do with the internet, go read The Atlantic’s compulsively readable History of Meatloaf (the foodstuffs and not the singer).

Interactive Primer: Designing for Development

As dutiful developers, we defer to designers as we engineer and execute our partners’ vision, pixel perfect. Our next Interactive Primer webinar is about how we make design work online with HTML, CSS, and other acronyms. RSVP for the free webinars on Wednesday, September 7 at 10:15 a.m. Central and Thursday, September 8 at 3:15 p.m. Central.

Nerdery senior front-end developers Dan P and Anthony T will give advice for how to hand-off design assets that are ready to rock-n-roll right into web production. We’ll cover:

• designing for interactivity
• color profiles
• document dimensions
• nerd’s-eye perspective on layouts, fonts and industry standards
• tips and tricks to get the most out of Photoshop when designing for the web
• lost design elements
• preparing files for a seamless hand-off

We’ll also get into what we learned about designing for development at An Event Apart, along with why it’s best to design your mobile layout first and how to get started with responsive design.

Branding 10,000 Lakes

Designer and art director Nicole Meyer has challenged herself with designing logos for 10,000 of Minnesota’s lakes (according to the DNR we actually have 11,842 lakes that are 10+ acres). But even with designing one new logo a day for 10,000 lakes, the project will take more than twenty-seven years. It’s a delightful project that’s fun to look at. Go see for yourself.

Hell gets a new look

Spotted on Brand New, the redesign of Hell is smart and funny and a brilliant way to go if you need to build a portfolio without having any actual clients yet. Be sure to check out the case study on the rebrand.

Friday Links: Chip Kidd on punk graphic design & more

• Rad and Reckless: an Overview of Punk Graphic Design, a post by the fabulous Chip Kidd.
• The Skywalkers of Hazzard.
• Remake of Sesame Street’s pinball animation that celebrated counting to 12.
• How pencils are made.
• Top creatives offer five lessons about managing a $35 billon brand. And that brand would be Target.
• Heelloo is Twitter for pretenders (and kind of funny).
• Why you should care about typography.
• Want: Pantone postcards.
• NPR listeners pick the Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy books.