A fireside chat with Matt Mullenweg on design, entrepreneurship, and open source, via the MFA Interaction Design Program. 12.31

Enjoying design linkage over at Northcoast Zeitgeist. 12.30

People in Yosemite: A TimeLapse Study depicts a Yosemite that inspires both awe and alarm. 12.29

Digging the cycling skills depicted in this set of matchbox labels. Don't try this out on the roads, or this one either. 12.28

Some scans of Eiffel's original designs for the Eiffel Tower. Via Kottke. 12.26

Happy holidays. Posting will be light over the next week as we take time out to enjoy. 12.25

A gift of lovely little vector format arrows from the always inspiring Wire&Twine. Thanks! 12.24

The previously mentioned GF1 Field Test has been updated with a supplementary video gallery. 12.24

UPPERCASE issue 4 is on its way and looks great. Looks like it will feature a piece on Three Potato Four, one of my favourite online sources for things inspired and found. 12.24

Completely in awe of this gorgeous vintage script signage. Wow. 12.24

"We took this as an opportunity to reinterpret the Christmas tree and its role as the traditional focal point for a communal space. Mobile Mobile is a six metre circumference interactive sculpture, and signature piece for the entrance of the Brick Lane studio." 12.24

"Pink was once a color associated with masculinity, considered to be a watered down red and held the power associated with that color." I just checked back in on JeongMee Yoon's Pink & Blue Project and was reminded of how interesting I find these images. 12.23

Five things you probably didn't know about Zaha Hadid. That, and how her architecture closely resembles various types of salty snacks. Via C-Monster. 12.23

"Looking at them today, far removed from their original context, they take on an almost dadaist/surrealist feeling." Eric Baker with a selection of extraordinary cigarette cards featuring a very wide variety of illustrations. Here are a few more. 12.22

The gift of great advice can be found over at Humble Pied, where designers and other creative people share insight via short video interviews. 12.22

Seriously great design, materials and printing for Facebook's holiday gift, which includes a poster and custom donation token for the public school of your choice. If Facebook itself were this well designed, I might actually use it. 12.22

Some monumental new work by artist Jim Denevan. 12.22

MIT's Copenhagen Wheel, a revolutionary new bicycle wheel that not only boosts power, but can keep track of friends, fitness, smog and traffic. The Wheel also has a smart lock: if somebody tries to steal it, it goes into a mode where the brake regenerates the maximum amount of power, and sends you a text message. So cool. 12.21

Brand New has posted their take on the Best and Worst Identities of 2009 and opinionated comments are already piling up. 12.21

Brush up your knowledge of well-known UK brands with The Logo Board Game. 12.21

16 Days in the Himalayas with the Panasonic Lumix GF1. Yes, please. 12.21

Terrific images of vintage storefronts with a lot of typographic inspiration to be had. Via Draplin. 12.18

Ridiculously huge photoset of safety matchbox covers, from the intriguingly minimal to the lovely and classic to the one that looks vaguely like a bad ski day I had one time. 12.18

A promotional film for Polaroid SX-70 created by Charles and Ray Eames. Via Swissmiss. 12.18

Beware the Dreaded Killer Jellyfish of Graphic Design Favors. 12.18

2009 in photographs from The Big Picture: Part One. Part Two. Part Three. 12.17

Here I was, in quite possibly the most highly regarded beer brewing country in the world, and everyone was drinking watered-down light beer. I decided to find out what was going on. 12.17

Photographs of glaciers taken from space. 12.17

The twin of my big red 3 is getting some serious love today! 12.16

An inside look at the design process of Frank Chimero as he designs his poster for the Kitsune Noir poster club. 12.16

The ABCs of Branding poster. 12.16

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story is a new book by Paul Shaw presenting years of research on New York's subway system signage. 12.16

A Typeface for the Underground, a discussion of both the original Johnston Sans design and the redesigned New Johnston. 12.15

Going to California, film from a road trip from Seattle through California visiting Redwood, Sequoia, Yosemite, Death Valley and Mono Lake. With a 5D MKII. 12.15

Some great images from the Colorado state cyclocross championships, including one of my friend Pete Webber who moved on to win the national title. 12.15

David Rumsey's Map Collection. I'm currently mesmerized by this one. Via CP. 12.15

Grain Edit interviews Scott Hansen of ISO50. 12.14

The Piet Zwart Collection from Ars Libri Ltd. Play the slideshow and be reminded of how much design owes to Zwart. 12.14

Film about Nakaya Ukichiro, a scientist who created artificial snow for the first time. I love his snowflake classification charts. More on types of snowflakes here. 12.14

Posting up this Brand New piece about the Mercy Corps logo for more than one reason. It's branding that can save lives when victims of disaster use it to recognize help, and that's a bigger job than most logos manage to take on. Secondly, its application by many different people using simple tools and materials allows them to take ownership of the brand, even if it means that reproduction is not exact. Watching a brand be adopted and used is one of my favourite things about creating them. 12.14

Simple and rather inexplicable, but quite nice. Via DO. 12.14

Design from Sweden. 12.14

The photography of Uta Barth, one of my all-time favourites. More here and here. 12.11

Graphic Masterpieces of Yakov G. Chernikhov: The Collection of Dmitry Y. Chernikhov. Just spectacular. 12.10

Carolyn Sewell's illustrated project, Postcards to My Parents. Make sure to go through the full photoset here. 12.9

Les animaux tels qu'ils sont. Je, j'aime les éléphants "modernes" et ceux de la tradition. 12.9

What do laundry and lunch delivery have to do with communication, culture and creativity? Through time-tested coding systems, both enterprises are able to track vast numbers of items within their service chain to ensure accurate delivery. Meena Kadri also has a photoset of Mumbai's huge laundry compound and one of its iconic dabbawallas. Via DO. 12.9

Please Simplify conducts exercises in the act of simplification, including removing the vowels from well-known fast food logos. 12.9

Some amazing photographs of salticids found in Oklahoma. For MS back at CP. 12.9

Enjoying Display. 12.9

Accessories. I have a similar box displayed carefully on my wall. 12.8

"If good design is a balance of aesthetics and utility, the craft peaked in the years between 1945–1970." As always, some old/new design inspiration from The Mid-Century Modernist. 12.8

"The MacBook Air is the world's thinnest laptop ever. However, here in the UK, we still use the world's biggest three-pin plug," says Choi. Min-Kyu Choi could effect big change in the UK with his impressive new plug design. 12.8

Illustration by Tom Burns. 12.8

Good to revisit: I'm rereading Frank Chimero's 10 Principles That Might Make Your Work Better or May Make It Worse. 12.8

I've been busy updating The Gallery, which features a collection of found lists, grocery and otherwise. 12.7

ILT has posted a great piece on Nadine Chahine and her newly released Neue Helvetica Arabic. I've enjoyed her blog for quite some time, and am always interested in her thoughts regarding Arabic typography. For further reading, here's ILT's interview with Chahine from 2008. 12.7

I would absolutely collect baseball cards if they were all as incredible as these. I mean, how about this one? So great. 12.7

Identity Programs by Noel Martin. 12.7

Exactly what I was out shooting last weekend: Boxcar Logos. Fabulous. 12.5

Four Things I’ve Learned About Designers. 12.5

Some great type on We Love Typography this week: this, this, and this. Oh, and this. 12.4

"Using Adobe's not the same without a Mac…" Music video parody/homage to Neutraface. 12.4

Painting with Marmite. Really, really well. 12.4

Chris Peterson spent 100 days in Glacier National Park taking photographs with a wide variety of cameras. The idea was to use cameras that would have been used over the course of the Park's 100 years to help celebrate Glacier's Centennial. These included a mix of film and digital cameras, including an 8 by 10 field camera, a Kodak Pocket Vest camera circa 1909, and a Speed Graphic. 12.3

Nice book covers by Christopher Brand. 12.3

For those who love bikes, do yourself a favour and check out The Ride. Gorgeous. 12.2

Is it the end of the line for London's iconic tube map? London's Oyster card expansion brings change to London Transport. Plus a gallery of 100 years of tube maps. 12.2

PUFF by William Wondriska featured on Designers Books. 12.2

Perhaps an Oystercard for the internet? We're getting closer to the new digital media model, and it's an exciting evolution. 12.1

Maira Kalman's Back to the Land has been linked up all over the place this past week, and for good reason. Go and read it. 12.1

Modern50 is a multi-disciplinary art and design partnership using reclaimed and salvaged materials and adhering to modernist tenants. A fascinating array of objects. Via The Silver Lining. 12.1