smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Shawn Blanc reflects on his current work load and Creative Design Poverty:

“There is much more to design than white space, the two-thirds rule, and font selection. Those tricks and elements surely help when we’re stuck, but I know for certain that they are not what real creative design is all about.”

Tools and standards cannot define creativity in of themselves. Design is the outward expression of inward creative thinking.

“I look at the elements and standards of good design as the launching pad to what creative design is really about: Creating.”

Amen.

Chris Cabanillas has written a wonderful and insightful piece on the current frustration that is licensed typography and the web:

“I’d like to show this post to you in FF Meta Serif but I can’t. Foundries would like you to be able to use their fonts on the web but they can’t just give their work away so they must wait for the technology.”

I agree strongly with Chris that technologies like sIFR are — with respect to Shaun and Mike — not a good solution. It doesn’t scale well, and to be blunt removes much of a typeface’s personality in the process of converting it into an image.

I’m simply not a fan of using flash-and-or-java-and-bitmaps to overcome typographical challenges. Irrespective of how brilliant the use of the technology might be. And it shouldn’t have to be this way, as most modern Operating Systems can render font families pretty darn well.

With the advent of Cleartype, even Windows has the ability to do a half-decent job. Yet here we are, still, converting typefaces to poor-quality low resolution images — to avoid breaching any typeface licensing — in order that we may inject some form of typographical colour to an otherwise vanilla-like pallet.

Converting typefaces to bitmap images, then, clearly isn’t the answer and in a way permits the world to embrace a second-best option rather than actually confront what has been traditionally placed into the “too hard” basket. If a fast and efficient methodology allowed for real time vector creation — given it’s wondrously crisp scaling capabilities — then one might be on to something.

But even that is a cop out, to a degree, as it’s still not necessarily rendering a typeface as the designer intended. Right now image replacement is an ugly, inefficient and wasteful process that simply doesn’t have any advantages. The alternative standard means I will have to keep on using Verdana, Palatino Linotype or other open-licensed typefaces.

“But, I think the only way we get there is if a web designer, a typeface designer, and a type developer get together over coffee and hash this out. If we leave it to a committee it may never happen.”

Chris poses some excellent questions and thoughts — if you’ve not subscribed to Restiffbard yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Cameron reflects on a recent design brief:

“..design isn’t just some magical entity. I don’t boil lizards and fairy dust in a cauldron while mumbling pseudo-Latin phrases and waving my hand about willy-nilly to make a website, it’s not magic, or even talent. It’s work; It’s art.”

There is as much, if not more to learn in an initial failure, as there is in an instant home-run. And learning why something doesn’t work means that exact same mistake or design flaw is far less likely in future. The outcome of re-working a slightly miss-aligned concept is often a strengthening in skill set and talent, something that immediate success without the hard yards, doesn’t always provide.

As a result, Cameron’s designs are among some of the single best I have seen used within the tumblr network.

Bill Israel comments on the fascination that is layer tennis:

First, I like some narrative to the match. I don’t mean that each volley must necessarily continue a story, but I like to see the competitors get into a groove where they seem to be telling a story with their volleys.

The October 12 match was the highlight for me; each new volley contained elements from the previous serve. The result was a true match of skill and talent, where the goal wasn’t so much in developing something entirely new in each serve, rather utilising the existing layers to build a new scene of an ongoing story.

After looking at the last match, with it’s recurring themes and motifs, it’s clear the designers are devouring previous matches for guides on good technique and each serve really did stand up and add something to the last.

Thank you Coudal, for introducing such an amazing, vibrant and entirely creative event — even if it’s a very, very late night for those watching live from down-under.

It appears the previous design is still considered by some to be a ‘clone’ of Gruber’s Daring Fireball, despite sharing absolutely no similarities under the hood.

Whilst flattering, it is none-the-less a distraction that cannot possibly end up on a positive note.

Design regressed, the topic is now closed. Thank you.

I still find this to be an amazing source of inspiration, both in the sense of showcase of design, and the often beautiful typeface selections.

Discover music via a pretty unique type of flash based remote control.

Takes the term "human interface" to a whole new level. Remarkable.

"It’s not the number that counts, it’s the balance." — Jason Fried.

"No cover art – well that just won’t do for this coverflow user." Mr Hicks opens up the floor and kick-starts a design-a-thon for the new Radiohead album.