Well, we have been a little bit quiet for a while. One of reasons is that we are a bit busy these weeks – but also because we went to New York last week on a research trip.

NY is a fantastic place for studying and experiencing design. This city has just everything: innovation, pulse, surprises and so much creativity. I think all of us went back to Copenhagen with so much more design energy and inspiration – and some brain cells less :-)

One of the days we went to Williamsburg and hung out. We visited PS1, which is the contemporary part of MOMA. This place is really something. The art is fantastic and innovative. And the museum itself was also a nice experience. PS1 was originally the first public school in Queens (hence the name) – and the place has been renovated very respectfully.

Right next to PS1 is Five Pointz. Here you find interesting street art. Really cool paintings in an unspoiled way. In Denmark we really miss these kinds of art places – and specially a place for this kind of underground art.

By the new Rix

Link

-S

At our previous after-work meeting here at 1508 the creators of www.mitkbh.dk presented the ideas and strategy behind their new user driven website. To put it simple: The logic behind the site is that 10 Copenhageners know more about their own city than one journalist - so why not let them share their own reviews on restaurants, café and other places with each other!

But mitkbh.dk is more than just written reviews. It is also an intelligent database that compares user information. Thereby mitkbh.dk is capable of providing the users with suggestions for new places to go according to their individual taste and preferences.

It was inspiring to experience to the thoughts, drive and energy that these guys had invested in the project, and it will be interesting to see how the site will develop in the future. According to the focus that mitkbh.dk has already received in the media it won’t be long before everybody knows about the site. But in order for the site to become a real success people need to actively participate by writing their own reviews. 

So if you haven’t already visited mitkbh.dk now is the time to do it. – And don’t forget to write a review about your favorite – or worst – place in Copenhagen. 

 PH.   

The Art of Type is a panel discussion about typography from Extensis, go and listen now!

“This year at the Macworld Conference and Expo, we hosted a number of expert font panel discussions at our booth on the show floor. The discussions turned out quite well, and for those of you who were unable to make it to the show, we’re happy to report that we recorded everything!”

Chris Bolton is a Finnish designer, not only does he make interesting work, but so is his site: It is built on xml and xsl styleshees, making it quite fast to update and in a logical way too.

Letter by Circle is founded by Dante H Carlos, and you will like it.
Outlandish is photography creation house for young Belgian talent, not to be mistaken by the Danish music group.
Hey that’s my pencil there

Last but certainly not least check out Tony vs Paul, they really are rivals huh?!

- S

I just finished reading Steve Krugs bestseller, Don’t make me think. It’s a book about user-friendly web interfaces and it was kind of an eyeopener too me. Not because it told me something I’ve never heard before, but because it emphasized that not all users are working at a design studio. Was that an eye opener? Well… yes it was. Once again I was reminded how difficult it is decode your audience and how easy it is to design for some one like yourself. So Krug retold me the story of just how different web users really are, and what level of navigation principles you really should design for. If you work with usability and web design, you aught to be forced to read something like this every half year. Agree?

By Rudolf

Visit absolut.com …you probably been there before, but this time navigate to the poster ABSOLUT DESIGN. Draw your own bottle shape,
lean back and enjoy how they manage to integrate your design into a fun story.

BY ABSOLUT RYING

A rather impressive Volkswagen ad by german agency Grabarz & Partner.

Watch it here: http://advertlover.com/videos/VW_Phaeton_shadowplays.mpg

Cleo

The blog “Design Oberserver” was founded by heavy-weight designers, writers and thinkers from Pentagram: Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand and Rick Poynor among others. It is one of the best places to look for intelligent discourse on graphical design and visual culture.

Another very good resource is “SpeakUp”, which is very much like Design Obeserver but with a slightly more humorous/light hearted angle to the articles. Here every designer can discuss what’s on their minds. If you want to have a small idea of how designers think you must check these blogs out and contribute, because without critical thought we will only amass mediocre solutions.

And talking about critical thought check these links out:

M-o-n-a-m-o-u-r Now defunct, but always good for creative inspiration
Serial-Cut
Asterik Studio
Tolleson
Zip Design
FWIS

From at time when graphic design was more about clear ideas and less about stock photography and gradients…

Cleo