...is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998 (archives). You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or interesting links, send them along.
Mixel, a free iPad app from Khoi Vinh and Scott Ostler, has launched. Khoi explains what it's all about here.
Our app is called Mixel. It's a collage-making tool and a social network rolled into one. With Mixel, anyone can create and share digital collages using images from the Web, Mixel's library, or your own personal photos from Facebook or what's right on your iPad.
Mixel is such a great name...can't wait to play with this when I get home tonight (I left my f'ing iPad at home today).
Khoi Vinh has a new book coming out next month called Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design.
"Ordering Disorder" is an overview of all of my thoughts on using the typographic grid in the practice of Web design. The first part of the book covers the theories behind grid design, the historical underpinnings of the grid, how they're relevant (and occasionally irrelevant) to the work of Web designers -- and a bit of my personal experience coming to grips with grids as a tool.
The second part of the book, which makes up its bulk, walks readers through the design of a full Web site from scratch, over the course of four projects.
Vinh did the art direction for the book himself, so it's bound to be purty (and grid-y). The perfect early holiday gift for the web designer in your life.
Fresh off several years as Design Director of nytimes.com, Khoi Vinh gives his opinion of the current batch of iPad magazine apps. I think he's right on.
My opinion about iPad-based magazines is that they run counter to how people use tablets today and, unless something changes, will remain at odds with the way people will use tablets as the medium matures. They're bloated, user-unfriendly and map to a tired pattern of mass media brands trying vainly to establish beachheads on new platforms without really understanding the platforms at all.
The fact of the matter is that the mode of reading that a magazine represents is a mode that people are decreasingly interested in, that is making less and less sense as we forge further into this century, and that makes almost no sense on a tablet. As usual, these publishers require users to dive into environments that only negligibly acknowledge the world outside of their brand, if at all - a problem that's abetted and exacerbated by the full-screen, single-window posture of all iPad software. In a media world that looks increasingly like the busy downtown heart of a city - with innumerable activities, events and alternative sources of distraction around you - these apps demand that you confine yourself to a remote, suburban cul-de-sac.
Khoi also has an interesting travel packing tip to share. (via swissmiss)
Khoi Vinh, design director of NYTimes.com and Subtraction, will be answering questions from readers all this week. Look for Khoi's initial responses later in the day and week.
Khoi has some thoughtful notes (+photos) about his experience with a digital photography class he's taking. "The more I learn about photography, the less interested I am in close-ups that fetishize surface textures, and the less impressed I am by well composed but basically inert subjects that don't communicate a narrative of any particular stripe."
Khoi Vinh on the move...he's the new Design Director for NYTimes.com. From the outside, it's one of the best jobs in web design and it's been filled well. (via waxy)
Khoi Vinh from Subtraction is currently in Vietnam as well, blogging and taking pictures.
Paragraph looks like a neat idea. It's a writer's workspace located near Union Square here in NYC. It's like a gym, except for writers. You pay a membership fee and then you can show up and use the facilities (desks, kitchen, your own locker for your stuff, wifi, etc.). More on Paragraph at designer Khoi Vinh's site.
Nifty "straight man" redesign of The Onion. Khoi Vinh of Behavior explains how the design was realized. (via waxy)
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