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All About the PlayStation 1’s Design: That explains how the controller got its look, but not how the buttons got their rather unique names. “That was also pretty tough,” Goto revealed. “Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted.” Hardware design is one area where Sony has always been the one to take a stand and make something iconic. The Playstation is a prime example.

All About the PlayStation 1’s Design:

That explains how the controller got its look, but not how the buttons got their rather unique names. “That was also pretty tough,” Goto revealed. “Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted.”

Hardware design is one area where Sony has always been the one to take a stand and make something iconic. The Playstation is a prime example.

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Five years ago I began work on my first documentary, Helvetica, which looked at the worlds of typography and graphic design, and their impact on our visual environment. After Helvetica was released in 2007, I had the idea for a second film, Objectified, which focused on industrial design and product design, and our relationship with the manufactured objects that surround us. While working on Objectified, I realized I wanted to make a third film that would also examine how design affects our lives, and began thinking of the films as a “design trilogy” of sorts.

The third documentary in this trilogy is about the design of cities. Urbanized looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design, featuring some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Urbanized - Looking forward to it. Helvetica and Objectified were both fantastic (though I wish Objectified had been more focused).
grain edit · KHUAN + KTRON for Weekend Knack Mag­a­zine - Love this one, but the whole set is great. Also: I miss Italia.

grain edit · KHUAN + KTRON for Weekend Knack Mag­a­zine - Love this one, but the whole set is great.

Also: I miss Italia.

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Make your work beautiful. Make it simple. Make it clear. Put it out there. Cast off the illusion that you can control the results. People respond by comparing to things they already know, so prepare for criticism. Ignore most of it. Listen to the bits that resonate. Understand that the more original your work is, the less others will be able to help you.
Possibilities — Before & After | Design Talk - Wise words from John McWade at Before & After. Must read.
herzog and de meuron: vitrahaus exterior Click for high-res photo

herzog and de meuron: vitrahaus exterior

So I’m searching bestbuy.com for “enclosure,” and then I see this. And I think, “Wait. That’s not a computer case. Is it? IS IT??!” Yep. For real. Um, yikes?

So I’m searching bestbuy.com for “enclosure,” and then I see this. And I think, “Wait. That’s not a computer case. Is it? IS IT??!”

Yep. For real. Um, yikes?

Panasonic Lumix GF1 Field Test — 16 Days in the Himalayas - A beautifully designed review for what looks like a beautiful camera. Click for high-res photo

Panasonic Lumix GF1 Field Test — 16 Days in the Himalayas - A beautifully designed review for what looks like a beautiful camera.

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Everything we did was entirely absorbed in the act of doing it, in wanting to do it, and everything we did stayed ultimately inside a single extraordinary sphere of life. The design was life itself, it was the day from dawn till dusk, it was the waiting during the night, it was an awareness of the world around us, of materials and lights, distances and weights, resistance, fragilities, use and consumption, birth and death…

When I Was a Very Small Boy: Observatory: Design Observer - Beautiful words from Ettore Sottsass, designer of the famous red Olivetti typewriter.

(via clusterflock)

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In the realm of industrial design, Dieter Rams is Yoda.
THE Q&A: DIETER RAMS, INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER | More Intelligent Life - This interview with Dieter Rams deserves a link for two reasons. One, it’s Dieter Rams. And two, that quote is the first sentence of the article.
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What’s left out from these movies is as important and beautiful as what’s included. They’re exercises in doing as much as possible with as little as possible, implying whole swaths of narrative information by allowing the audience to extrapolate events, details, backstories and subplots from only the barest hints of their presence. In fact, what Mann is doing here (and why I am so obviously drawn to this sensibility) is designing these stories — not just their presentation but more fundamentally their construction, too — and doing so in a way that evokes many of the very same things that thrill me about design.

Subtraction.com: Minimalism, Michael Mann and Miami Vice - While I don’t think Mann is doing anything particularly unique among the works of other great directors (see the films of Jean-Pierre Melville, Stanley Kubrick, Wim Wenders, Michelangelo Antonioni, Terrence Malick, etc., and tell me their films aren’t “experiences”), I do like the correlation Vinh is drawing between design and cinematic storytelling.

A great film is great for what it excludes as much as for what it includes, exactly like great design. In that regard design is itself a kind of mise en scene—what is there is how it works, and how effectively it works is a result of how carefully and skillfully the processes that affected the design were refined and employed.

Typography on the Web: Questions for Jeffrey Zeldman—Part 1

Two-part interview with Captain Z that provides a pleasant overview of the state of typography on the web. In brief: I’ve got to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time.

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I feel that as the world continues to fill with clutter at such a disconcerting pace, good design has the task of being quiet and helping people generate a level of calm that allows them to be themselves.
FT.com / House & Home - Simplicity, purity and openness - Dieter Rams.
Michael Deal ◊ Graphic Design - Absolutely stunning infographic work on The Beatles. I do wish the typography were a little clearer. Via Jason Kottke, one of the must-read people on the Internet. Click for high-res photo

Michael Deal ◊ Graphic Design - Absolutely stunning infographic work on The Beatles. I do wish the typography were a little clearer.

Via Jason Kottke, one of the must-read people on the Internet.

Crafting Subtle & Realistic User Interfaces — Flyosity: Mac & iPhone Interface Design - It occurred to me while reading this that the design of user interfaces was forever changed with the introduction of the iPhone. The iPhone was the first widely-adopted device to rely on the tactility of its interface, and because it was designed and executed so impeccably, it has influenced the world of UI design around it to think about user interface objects in those very same terms. “What if this software were actually a device?”, or, “What if you could touch it?” are questions this article, and by implication the iPhone, prompts UI designers to ask themselves. I never heard this kind of discussion on so broad a basis before the iPhone. Truly revolutionary, that little thing.

Crafting Subtle & Realistic User Interfaces — Flyosity: Mac & iPhone Interface Design - It occurred to me while reading this that the design of user interfaces was forever changed with the introduction of the iPhone. The iPhone was the first widely-adopted device to rely on the tactility of its interface, and because it was designed and executed so impeccably, it has influenced the world of UI design around it to think about user interface objects in those very same terms. “What if this software were actually a device?”, or, “What if you could touch it?” are questions this article, and by implication the iPhone, prompts UI designers to ask themselves. I never heard this kind of discussion on so broad a basis before the iPhone. Truly revolutionary, that little thing.

grain edit · Simon Page interview - To round out the posts for today, something simple: this lovely poster, and many others, from Simon Page, in an interview with the lovely folks of grain edit. The guy studied applied mathematics in school and only got into graphic design about a year ago while he was working on corporate presentations. An inspiring story.

grain edit · Simon Page interview - To round out the posts for today, something simple: this lovely poster, and many others, from Simon Page, in an interview with the lovely folks of grain edit. The guy studied applied mathematics in school and only got into graphic design about a year ago while he was working on corporate presentations. An inspiring story.