Offscreen Magazine

Offscreen is a new magazine edited, produced and beautifully designed by Kai Brach, focusing on the personalities behind the pixels – in a good way.

Next Larger Context

Eliel Saarinen:

Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Responsive Images

Last week I was invited to Responsive Summit, a face-to-face discussion about Responsive Web Design. We talked about what we’ve learnt so far, the problems we’re continuing to face and things we’d like to change. And no, I didn’t get the Dr. Strangelove reference either.

Nip/Tuck

Following on from last July’s extensive redesign of this site, the last few weeks have seen me revisit the design and implementation. In light of today’s Responsive Summit, and with a few people asking about the changes, I thought I should provide a little more detail.

The Olympic Velodrome

Last weekend I visited the new Olympic velodrome for the UCI Track Cycling World Cup. Part of London Prepares, a programme of test events before the games take place this summer, it was thrilling to see athletes up close as they also prepare for London 2012. The building is absolutely stunning, although Ben Terrett notes a few design oversights that remain.

The Beach

They call this place Ocean Beach, perhaps because both take up most of the view. The sky is hard to truly make out, with only a faint line separating two sweeping blue canvases, each in many ways a reflection of the other.

No Longer Loving Google

Nelson Minar:

I refuse to give in to a cynical view of Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto; that ethos was very real, a sincere and important guiding principle. And if a big company like Google can’t avoid being evil, then what world-changing enterprise can? But I think Google as an organization has moved on; they’re focussed now on market position, not making the world better. Which makes me sad.

Google is too powerful, too arrogant, too entrenched to be worth our love. Let them defend themselves, I’d rather devote my emotional energy to the upstarts and startups. They deserve our passion.

Sound familiar? As much as I despise Facebook, Google isn’t any better behaved. In fact, its crimes are often far worse.

I still have a Google account, although the only services I rely on are search and Reader. DuckDuckGo is looking like a promising replacement for search, but nearly every decent RSS reader still syncs with Google Reader (even if through unofficial and undocumented APIs). As soon as that changes, my Google account will be deleted.

After Gowalla

Over the past few years, I’ve often meant to write about the location-based social network Gowalla. Recently acquired by Facebook and with closure imminent, now is my last opportunity to do so.