WEEKLY REVIEW  |  August 3, 2017

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TECH

The beautiful merger of data and design

The Airbnb design tools team recently released a tool they’ve created that can help bridge the gap between designers and engineers—React-sketchapp. The open source library lets you write React components that render to Sketch documents. The initial objective of the project was to reduce the time it takes to generate static assets, but the team soon realized they’d uncovered brand new ways of interacting with design systems. It’s on GitHub now, so go have fun.

You had me at "Hej"

Last month, designer and artist Jonas Eltes unveiled his latest art installation, Lost in Computation. Two Cleverbot chat bots, running on Raspberry Pis, talk with each other in Swedish and Italian, and then filter their conversations through Google Translate. It’s not always polite banter, though. After one bot introduced itself, the companion bot responded, “Your name is ugly.”  When asked about his art’s place in the digital world, Eltes believes that the “greatest issue is people not reflecting on and being aware of how much of their daily input of information is a product of binary computation.” Or is it the other way around?

MARKETING

Advertising's brand of humor

Listen as Wade Devers, ECD and Partner at Arnold Worldwide, talks about some of his favorite ads of all time. He names Volkswagen’s “Milky Way” and Jack Daniels’ “Postcards from Lynchburg” among his favorites. But top of mind for Devers—and for most of Britain—is the “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet” campaign. Not only is it ranked among the 10 funniest, but it’s also one of the longest running commercials, lasting an impressive 36 years.

 

 

Who made what and when?

When you think “Toyota”, you probably don’t think sturdy, precise…sewing machine. But that’s exactly what you got if you purchased a Toyota in 1946. Scroll through photos of some of the first products from famous companies. All the designs are pretty much gorgeous in their own rights and while products from companies like Canon and Intel might be somewhat predictable, the first Lamborghini might be a charming surprise.

DESIGN

The politics of Calibri

What do a scandal about the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Microsoft, and Donald Trump, Jr. have in common? Not what you might think. Not since Helvetica and Comic Sans has a font stirred such passion. The font’s creator, Lucas de Groot, designed it for Microsoft in 2004. Read about Calibri’s role in recent scandals, and what font Lucas thinks Trump should use for his resignation letter.

Clear your schedule

You’re about to go down a wonderful rabbit hole of websites. The Web Design Museum has over 800 websites on display for you to peruse and scroll down memory lane. You can browse by year, category, and style—you can even submit a web design to be considered for induction. Take a look at the homepage of 2004’s “The Facebook”, see what NASA was doing in 1994, and get some inspiration from pretty portfolio sites from all around the world.

INFLUENCERS

Spreading peace one troll at a time

Dylan Marron doesn’t just check his phone for updates and invites; he checks his phone for messages of hate. And then he calls the messengers back. For an actual conversation. The writer, performer, and video maker seems to be a polarizing figure for some. It could be because of his sexual orientation, his heralded video series “Every Single Word”, or his active support for trans—or maybe all of the above. So he’s put the online jabs on the air. Listen to some of the transformative conversations in his new podcast, Conversations with People Who Hate Me.

EVENTS

Yoga, food trucks, and live music. Not necessarily in that order. Check out the free Laurel Street Fair, all day Saturday August 12. Paseo Artistico: Calle 24 is hosting an all-day Latino art walk and mural tour through the Mission District on Sunday August 13. ¡Vamonos! Stuff your sandwich holes at Off the Grid’s Presidio Picnic Sunday Food Truck Party. Show up at the Main Post Lawn any time between 11 AM—4 PM.

AND JUST FOR FUN

That’s how he rolls

Chinese-Italian chef Yujia Hu rolls sushi like no other. His customers are not Kanye West, Future, Gucci Mane, and Action Bronson—they’re his sushi rolls. Yujia was an art student when he decided to drop out and work in his family’s restaurant in Milan. He obviously didn’t leave behind his love of art. Drawing inspiration from the rap lifestyle, Yujia turns his little sushi sculptures into the likenesses of Kanye West, Gucci Mane, Tupac, and others, captioning their photos with “808 & Chopsticks”, “Gushi Mane”, and “All Rice on Me”, respectively. That’s some mad pun skillz, yo.

Prince William would like to connect with you on LinkedIn

The Royal Palace has a new job opening and they’re using LinkedIn to find the right candidate. The job listing is for the position of Senior Communications Officer who will conduct research for special projects, support the Household communications team, draft press lines, and be responsible for organising (note your spelling) press briefings. This could be your opportunity to rub shoulders with royalty. Or at least rub the shoulders of royalty. Apply now!


“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Albert Einstein