This is a very handy Mac Widget for a narrowboater- it gives the latest tide heights for your local area. Image is The Great Wave off Kanagawa, by Katsushika Hokusai, (葛飾北斎), (1760—1849)
Archive for December, 2007|Monthly archive page
Tide & time
In boat, Easy on December 30, 2007 at 7:28 pmMy ten favourite pieces of product design #4: le creuset casserole
In design, design classics series, simple on December 28, 2007 at 8:12 pmFrance, 1925
Le Crueset
Cooking certain things very slowly makes them taste very good indeed.A heavy cast iron pot is just the trick.
Our Le Creuset, called Nigel, regularly dishes up such delicacies as melt-in-the-mouth roast lamb and stoved potatoes.
Going for gold
In design, Grr, work on December 26, 2007 at 10:31 pmRight now I’m working with a client to fine-tune their yellow/orange-coloured logo. We’ve got something we’re happy with on screen, but achieving it on print is quite a bit trickier.
Most of the usual tricks- matching to swatches, speccing a Pantone ink, etc work well for volume printing but are an unlikely prospect with a small local printer.
Also, the yellow/orange shade is a tough one to get right in print.We’ll see which of my range of options work out- we may have to be realistic and choose a shade which is more ‘flexible’.
My ten favourite pieces of product design #3: filofax organiser
In Uncategorized on December 24, 2007 at 1:09 pmUK, 1921
Unknown
At first, I thought the filofax ‘personal’ paper size, which bears little relation to the ISO ‘A’ series, was a little odd. Now I know it’s a great size for carrying around and fitting it all in. Top tip- use a pencil to write in it, so you can easily rearrange dates and update addresses.
Good because
Doesn’t need synchronising, or referring to a user manual- you just write in it. I do enjoy the writing and scribbling part!
MY TEN FAVOURITE PIECES OF PRODUCT DESIGN #2: Coffee filter
In design, design classics series, Easy, food, simple on December 23, 2007 at 1:32 pmGermany, 1908
Melitta Bentz
Surprising that one of the most minimalist ways of brewing coffee is also one of the best! Note that Bentz was repsonsible for the idea of the paper filter, not necessarily the plastic cone.
(Via About.com inventors)
Good because
Best taste, and very easy to clean!
My ten favourite pieces of product design #1: Caran D’Ache Fixpencil
In design, design classics series, simple, Technology on December 23, 2007 at 1:16 pmSwitzerland, 1929
Carlo Schmid
Why is this a classic?
A simple 2mm clutch pencil first produced in 1929 and altered very little since. Solidly made from aluminium, with a clever repointer built into the end cap. Here’s an image of a very early version for comparison:
Good for
Writing and sketching
Died another day
In Grr, media on December 22, 2007 at 4:07 pmWatched Die Another Day on arrival in Norfolk. Bond at Christmas is a bit of a tradition. Now, every Bond film stretches credulity a fair bit, but I thought this one was sillier than usual (think car chase round a hotel made of rapidly-melting ice in Iceland, where the cars don’t show a scratch!). It was worse for it.
A couple of new design projects (just for fun) [2]
In design on December 21, 2007 at 9:11 amOne of my family will be getting this exciting voucher for Christmas- but who?
A couple of new design projects (just for fun) [1]
In design on December 21, 2007 at 9:06 amI’ve recently taken on production of our college magazine, Lampanelle. I’ve come up with a new mark for it,here’s a sneak preview:
things that might have been otherwise 