entp, the Portland based consultancy and incubator recently redesigned. They are proponents of Rails, but for the redesign opted to go with a static site:
Hanging out with a group of developers, it’s hard to convince people that sometimes a static lifestyle is the way to go. For simple brochure sites – I still think 100% static is the best method out there. But there are some challenges associated with this – for example, I wanted to pull in people’s github repositories and rotate out employees at the bottom. Luckily for me, Github offers a nice JSON API with callbacks – so I’m able to pull in everyone’s non-forked repositories (thanks to a quick bribe) and show them there. Storing everyone’s information in a nice static json file allows me to work the rest of my magic, all with Javascript. Our deployment strategy is a cron job running a git pull – so anyone with access to the git repository can edit content and push it live.
Gestalten has just released what looks to be a fascinating new book entitled Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design. It looks to be aimed squarely at the Modcult demographic. It surveys the current landscape of data driven visualizations with an eye towards creative aesthetics.
Gestalten, send our review copy via the link at the bottom of the page…
PostSpectacular has designed a system for creating one of a kind covers for Faber Finds, Faber’s print-on-demand service. The generative design system is built using PHP, Java, and Processing.
The gorgeous font used on the covers is B-HMMND, designed by Corey Holms.
More images can be found here.
Had to post Coralie Bickford-Smith’s eye-catching cover for the Penguin’s current “Boys Own Books” edition of G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday, featuring illustrations by Mick Brownfield. You can see more of Bickford-Smith’s covers for the Boys Own series at Penguin’s Flickr page.
Bickford-Smith is also responsible, along with partner/illustrator Mike Topping, for the new round of Sherlock Holmes covers Penguin, inspired by vintage movie posters. There’s a nice walkthrough of their collaborative process by Mike and Coralie accompanied by pictures of the covers over at Scamp.
As a side note, the recent Penguin Classics collections all look quite fantastic and it’s a struggle not to pick up these new editions whenever I am lingering in a bookstore.
Now this is what I need to help keep my records/books from overtaking the house. I wonder how LP sized steps would work? (and they would definitely provide a better workout as well…)
(↝via SVN)
New hardback covers by Michael Gillette for the Bond series to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ian Flemming’s birth.
I was browsing the Vintage and Vintage/Black Lizard websites today. Is it just me, or does Random House need to spring for a redesign this holiday season?
Harmen Liemburg’s illustration for an article in a magazine you won’t find over here is a collage of engravings by Cornelis Huijberts, Josef Mulder and
Jan Wandelaar in the books of Dutch botanist and anatomist Frederik Ruysch[1]. Perhaps O’Reilly can commision him to do some covers for a dark surrealist series of programming books?
I also really like his poster for the 2005 International Poster and Graphic Arts Festival of Chaumont, which combines various elements of the exhibited prints with new work.
[1]: Be sure to check out Wandelaar’s work. Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani features some bizarre backgrounds accompanying the anatomical sketches. One of the more famous is Human Skeleton with Young Rhinoceros. While looking for a quality version of that engraving I came across a post by Glyins Ridley discussing how that very image was the origin of her book Clara’s Grand Tour. Yes, the rhino in that engraving was named Clara, and she was on display across Europe from 1741 to 1758.
