Secret Door Hack on Core77

Ablixa: After You See This Logo, You’ll Need It on Brand New

Chermayeff & Geismar: Harvard University press logo on DesignBoom

Chicago Warehouse fire results in Ice Wonderland on Juxtapoz

Contemporary Eco-Friendly House With Asymmetric Shape on Freshome

I was asked, by someone starting out in our design industry, how the repeating pattern, used in the masthead of this site, was created. So for February's colours, I decided to do a short screencast tutorial on the process. I've embedded the video below.

I hope to do more of these screencasts, as I have material to fill them with. I'd prefer to have actual projects to do, rather than making up subject matter, so it depends on the sensitivity of the project.

I find and post a lot of links, both here and on Twitter. As I wrote when I introduced the old-school links page, I subscribe to a lot of feeds and there is some terrific stuff out there on the web.

I thought I would post a brief follow-up each week, of the links I liked best. I'm going to say I'll do about five a week, but if I need to, I'll post more (or less, I guess).

The links below have been posted over the last week and a bit, I hope to do this every Friday, for the previous week.

For Hannelore on the Gingerbread Blog

Popeye Energy Drink on The Dieline

Skittle Sorting Machine on DesignBoom

Infographic: A Map Of All The Action In Star Wars And Indiana Jones on Fast Co.Design

MyThai Branding and Packaging on The Dieline

This redesign has been coming a while now. The ideas have been there on a slow simmer, now is when everything is just ready to go.

The main difference in design is probably the fact that the content takes precendent- there is no sidebar of blogging miscellany. Many times during the early design stages, it always seemed appropriate to stick a sidebar in, but it didn't feel right. It felt like a cop-out, something to bulk up the actual blog content.

I would never make any claims to the quality of my blog posts, but I do try produce content that contributes to the web, even if in some small way. It is what it is and I am presenting it front and (slightly off) centre.

Whilst my blog posting dropped off towards the end of October, I have been posting links on a regular basis, which have been collecting on my links page (and tweeted out too). I still don't know what to do with the links page- it's getting unwieldy- but I'll tackle that at some point soon.

The only new addition to the site is my Art page. I exhibit alternative art in my local art group and this is a collection of some things I have worked on over the last six or seven years. I have to gather my design pieces for a design page, but this will be done in the near future too.

The site should flex to any viewing port in a storm. I don't know what the kids are calling it these days, but the layout changes to suit smaller screens, without hiding or removing any content or elements. It's not perfect but it works pretty good.

I plan on updating the colour scheme every month, to reflect the month or my whim, and even though I'll be manually changing the CSS file, life is made a whole lot easier with SASS. Check it out, it's super useful.

Ok, back to work with me. If you're visiting for the first time, you can find out more about me here or you can contact me here.

As it's the 161st anniversary of the publication of Moby Dick, I've decided to republish the review I wrote of the book, a little over a year ago. In case it's not obvious from the review, I like this book a lot.

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."

I like to intersperse some classic literature amongst the paperback novels I normally read. Moby Dick is a story that I have been familiar with all my life, I can still remember scenes from the old Gregory Peck movie. And there is always the odd reference to 'Call me Ishmael', the classic opening line from Moby Dick.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book- I was familiar with the story, but I didn't know how the novel would pan out. It instantly endeared itself to me with the opening page, which the above quote was taken from. The English is overly descriptive and very 'flowery' at times and I found myself having to read sections again, to fully comprehend what was said. I will probably have to read this again at some point to fully comprehend it, but I don't have a problem with that.

"...yet he [Queequeg] had a particular affection for his own harpoon, because it was of assured stuff, well tried in many a mortal combat, and deeply intimate with the hearts of whales."

There are a nice mix of characters throughout the book, even entire chapters dedicated to a character and allows them a soliloquy or two. This books reminds me very much of Shakespeare, almost as if it were destined for the stage. In the large volume that the book is, there was very little devoted to what Ishmael actually did- there were references to it here and there but a lot of the descriptions were as if he were a fly on the wall, not a man in the middle of a chase. At times you would forget that the book had a narrator.

"It was hardly to be doubted, that several vessels reported to have encountered, at such or such a time, or on such or such a meridian, a Sperm Whale of uncommon magnitude and malignity, which whale, after doing great mischief to his assailants, had completely escaped them; to some minds it was not an unfair presumption, I say that the whale in question must have been no other than Moby Dick."

A large chunk of the book was taken up with very detailed descriptions of elements of the whaling industry circa 1850. Although these do give a flavour of the era, at times they can be tedious and other times they veer back into the story and before you realise it, you are missing something relevant to the story. Not my favourite part of the book, but I do think it was still necessary, although it could've be edited back.

"Lashed round and round to the fish's back; pinioned in the turns upon turns in which, during the past night, the whale had reeled the involutions of the lines around him, the half torn body of the Parsee was seen; his sable raiment frayed to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old Ahab. The harpoon dropped from his hand."

There are some great moments in the book, I can understand why it is such a classic. I am actually looking forward to reading it again, although I might get a copy of the book with a commentary, allowing further comprehension along the way.

Not the easiest book to read, it is quite slow in places and laden down with extra stuff, as mentioned above, but it is definitely worth the read, I highly recommend it. A pleasure to read.

"...his whole captive form folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it."