© 2009 John Fitzgerald
Archive for the ‘design’ Category
Megapuzzling megapixels
In design, information, photo on August 14, 2009 at 6:13 pmAm pondering my camera setup at present. My ‘ancient’ Nikon DSLR (ca. 4 years old) is noticeably outclassed in the image quality department by a compact which was about 1/6th the price!
Current ‘serious’ compacts (such as Canon G10, Lumix LX-3) offer about twice the resolution of my DSLR for half the price it cost me back in 2005. The worry is that if megapixel counts keeps growing, I’ll be looking at updating again in another 3 years.
The rising tide of Moore’s Law makes me nostalgic for film. Not too much though, processing and scanning was such a faff!
My ten favourite pieces of product design #5: bicycle
In bike, design, design classics series, Easy, london, outdoors, Technology on June 1, 2009 at 9:18 amI think this is perhaps my favourite ever piece of product design. The bicycle as we know it emerged at the end of the 19th / beginning of the 20th century, looking something like this:
And it hasn’t changed very much since then…
I love the bike’s simplicity, efficiency and elegance. It gets me where I need to be in a reasonable time with no more faff or hassle than needed. I currently ride a Farrhad Manufaktur, like this one:
Obviously, my isn’t nearly as clean as this 😉
It’s a little on the heavy side, but is very low maintenance and the mudguards mean I don’t get splattered en route to work, even if it’s raining.
The only downside of owning a bike in London is that they can get stolen every once in a while, which is very annoying indeed.
Life with a Sony Reader
In BBK, design, Technology on September 18, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Sony Reader image
I’ve had my Sony Reader for about 5 months now, so I thought I’d post about how I’ve found it. I wouldn’t say it has made books obsolete for me, but it comes pretty close- about 90% of my reading is now on the Reader rather than books.
The screen is really something; a real boon when reading long PDF articles for my philosophy course. I’ve also tracked down some shareware, Calibre, which is great for importing and converting various free ebooks, and turning news RSS into a handy ‘magazine’ format.
I would say that the relatively ‘open’ formats supported by the Reader really give it the edge compared to the likes of the Kindle. And, since long battery life is a key feature for extended reading, I think the lack of WiFi is probably no bad thing.
I’m still very underwhelmed by the book-purchasing options (via Waterstones et al). It’s quite a fiddly process- you have to install Adobe Digital Editions on a PC, authorise the Reader there, then install Adobe Digital Editions on a Mac, then buy books, then locate them on the Finder, then drag and drop them into the Reader. Considerably more complicated than getting free books or RSS feeds- have Sony learnt nothing from Amazon/itunes??
My 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 #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
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?
things that might have been otherwise 