Adam Stoddard

If by some chance I were ever in a “Brewster’s...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:41:53 -0800

If by some chance I were ever in a “Brewster’s Millions” type situation, I wouldn’t buy fancy cars or a big house, but you can bet your ass I’d buy an expensive watch. Specifically, this expensive watch, the Devon Tread 1.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship,..."

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:11:36 -0800

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

- Robert A. Heinlein

Little Printer is, well, a little printer that automatically...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:31:27 -0800

Little Printer is, well, a little printer that automatically prints out tiny personalized “newspapers” that can be assembled from a wide range of internet sources. It’s wasteful, clever, anachronistic, endearing, and wholly unnecessary. I very much want one.

The next time someone you know tells you that snakes are ugly,...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:35:01 -0800

The next time someone you know tells you that snakes are ugly, gross, etc. point them to this photo series of deadly snakes by Mark Laita. Beautiful work.

New documentary about Charles and Ray Eames, coming soon to...

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:06:58 -0700

New documentary about Charles and Ray Eames, coming soon to (some) theaters (probably not) near you. For everyone else, Amazon has you covered.

It seems like everyone is falling all over themselves today...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:45:00 -0700

It seems like everyone is falling all over themselves today declaring that Nest, a “learning thermostat” is next best thing since sliced bread.

The idea is interesting, and the design is quite attractive. Heck, I kind of want one. So what’s my beef?

I think it’s more than a little disingenuous to claim that this device will have any significant impact on overall energy consumption in the US. A thermostat can be had for under $20.00. Nest costs $250.00. The price virtually guarantees that it will live mostly in the domain of gadget / design enthusiasts.

If the Nest team was really interested in making a dent in energy consumption, they would be aiming for a much lower price to make sure it gets into as many homes as possible. Instead, they’re putting out a premium product at a premium price in order to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that, but spare me the “we’re going to save the planet” speech.

Ever have the desire to see screenshots of every version of...

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:12:07 -0700

Ever have the desire to see screenshots of every version of every significant browser? Wish granted nerd. The Evolution of The Web is a visual history of web browsers and web technology. Dive in and see just how ugly the brushed metal of Safari v.1 really was.

Created for the 125th anniversary of Coke by Turner Duckworth.

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:01:05 -0700

Created for the 125th anniversary of Coke by Turner Duckworth.

Want.

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:38:39 -0700

Want.

Excellent typographic work by Brandon Rike.

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:26:05 -0700

Excellent typographic work by Brandon Rike.

Japanese culture and mythology are two subjects that I’ve...

Wed, 18 May 2011 08:01:06 -0700

Japanese culture and mythology are two subjects that I’ve always been interested in. Ben Newman taps both with his book of illustrations, Bento Bestiary featuring beautifully rendered illustrations of Japanese demons.

Ridiculously good chalk lettering from Dana Tanamachi. It makes...

Tue, 17 May 2011 08:02:06 -0700

Ridiculously good chalk lettering from Dana Tanamachi. It makes me want to chalkboard paint the hell out of my new home office to practice my chalking skillz.

CameraSim is a handy little tool that lets you learn the basics...

Mon, 16 May 2011 21:41:48 -0700

CameraSim is a handy little tool that lets you learn the basics of photography from the comfort of your browser. The display updates as you adjust ISO, aperture, etc so you can see the results of your fiddling in real time.

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative..."

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:58:00 -0700

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

- Ira Glass (via nefffy)

While I’m not part of the demographic (physically anyway),...

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:17:03 -0700

While I’m not part of the demographic (physically anyway), the iPad magazine for children Timbuktu caught my eye for several reasons. The design is clean, minimal, and engaging with a Paul Rand / Saul Bass kind of feel and the focus is on the content, not the “chrome”.

The other reason it interested me is that I’m about to start on a similar project, and it looks like we came to the same conclusion. HTML5 is the way to go for these types of publications, not dumping jpegs out of Indesign.

I admit I have a problem. I suck at making seamless patterns....

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:58:04 -0700

I admit I have a problem. I suck at making seamless patterns. Something about them just doesn’t work with my brain, so I was happy to have Patternify pointed out to me. It’s a nifty little website that allows you to create seamless repeating patterns in your browser, then saves it out as a PNG or CSS style. Bookmarked.

Turn any web page into a Katamari Damacy style game where a...

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:16:35 -0700

Turn any web page into a Katamari Damacy style game where a sticky ball rolls around, picking up all the page elements it touches. Fun, and very clever. Grab the bookmarklet at kathack.com and start rolling.

We just received our copy of the Big Book of Packaging, which...

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:02:43 -0700

We just received our copy of the Big Book of Packaging, which features an interview of Chris Fasan and I for the Macadamia Natural Oil packaging we designed. I’ve had my work featured featured in a few books now, but this is the biggest feature by far, and it’s pretty exciting to see it in print.

Instead of slapping a DVD in a case, Rhett Dashwood decided to...

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:19:28 -0800

Instead of slapping a DVD in a case, Rhett Dashwood decided to take a more DIY approach to packaging a showreel. He found vintage books, stenciled and sprayed the covers, and carved out the interiors to hold a DVD or thumb drive. Filed under awesome ideas.

Mark Pilgrim, creator of the indispensable Dive Into HTML5 is at...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:33:24 -0800

Mark Pilgrim, creator of the indispensable Dive Into HTML5 is at again, this time collecting various ampersands from open source web fonts, and stripping them down to a single character font. Great for the next time you need that perfect ampersand.