Friday Edition from Central
Workshoppin'
Editors:

The Central Office:
Sara & Damien

 

Found Elsewhere Online:

Election maps 2008 > Mark Newman (cousin) updates his cartogram election maps, insanely fast, to show this year's results.

Unboxed - Design Is More Than Packaging [NYTimes.com] > The only smart thing said or written about in this article: "It would be overreaching to say that design thinking solves everything. That?s putting it too high on a pedestal," Mr. Kembel says. "Business thinking plus design thinking ends up being far more powerful."

Another Frightening Show About the Economy [This American Life] > Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson - the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode?are back, and explaining in alarmingly simple terms why shit happened, and how it might have been prevented.

313 - A Handy Map of San Francisco Bay [Strange Maps] > This 'Handy Map of San Francisco' does not say why or whether it is absolutely necessary to paint your right thumbnail black to create the effect of San Francisco.

Making money twice - [37signals] > That's roughly $765,000 over a few years off roughly the same content. Insight and ideas about how we run our business.

World War II Codebreaking Remembered [The Encyclopedia Vulcanica] > And that most importantly, were it not for the works of invention and genius performed at Bletchley Park in contribution to defeating the Nazis, your entire way of life could be markedly different.

Big black holes [Jason kottke] > Put another way, if you had 99 duodecillion dollars, you could buy as many PlayStation 3s as you wanted. Blows your mind, right?

He has got the hustle [Channel 4] > Nice to see a very good mate of ours getting some love: "I'm doing Jude Law next week," Charlie says, before grabbing the phone to negotiate a rate for Hello! syndication. Mr Gray is very well-mannered...it's something he's learnt from hanging around the truly professional and successful of the world.

Important work can be done while daydreaming [The Boston Globe] > The ability to think abstractly that flourishes during daydreams also has important social benefits. Mostly, what we daydream about is each other, as the mind retrieves memories, contemplates "what if" scenarios, and thinks about how it should behave in the future.

Interview with David Simon [The Believer] > My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader.



About the Friday Edition:

A somewhat regular publishing of things on or about Fridays. Brought to you by the people who did the squiggle, papercuts and other things.

On The Shelf: Begin with ideas: Imprint from Daniel Eatock

Daniel Eatock ImprintThis book has a wonderful hand-made touch to it, where Daniel Eatock traveled to the Indiana warehouse of the printer, and inked his thumbprint on the spine of every copy of his new monograph from Princeton Architectural Press. Eatock also inserted a hand-drawn circle page randomly into the pages so that each book would be different. Its likely that these two things alone made me instantly spring for the book. However, I wasn’t disappointed that there wasn’t more than that when I got it. It’s packed with similar displays of inventive thinking. Read + see more here.

 
I Made This: Something in the post.

Sara\'s Illustrated MailerSara’s little illustrated mailer went out in the post recently, which should have all by now reached the desks of those on the list. The illustrated mailer, the first of a series of things we like to send out in the post, kept a select few, up to date of some of the interesting things that have been going on here, at Central. Now we’d like to invite a few more people to the short list of those we send something out to three or four times a year. If you’d like to be on the somewhat exclusive list - sign up by emailing us at “inthepost” at this domain. Right now we’re limiting the list to the first 20 who sign up. Only 1 left now, thanks to those who’ve signed up so far.

 
I Made This: 26 on the Twenty-sixth.

Twenty six hand carved, intricate, ornate and delicate letters, each depicting a bug, flower or illustration that starts with the corresponding letter. An exercise in extreme precision and a display of delightful imagination, the wall of twenty six letters is a considerable joy to view. On the twenty sixth of January Sara held a private viewing of her project for friends & family. Here are some of the photos from the day.

 
I Made This: That Squiggle of the Design Process

Years ago I dropped a simple illustration in a proposal to convey the design process to a client. It was meant to illustrate the characteristics of the process we were to embark on, making it clear to them that it might be uncertain in the beginning, but in the end we’d focus on a single point of clarity. It seemed to work. And from then on, I’ve used it since. Many many many times. Use it for good and not evil from here.

 
The $#&*ers: The Bicycle versus the Prius

“While I acknowledge your commitment to combating global warming I do have to question why it is that Prius drivers are so very aggressive. Is it a feeling of self-righteousness that makes the typical Prius driver drive like they own the road?” Sara explores her inner peace with the Prius

 
I Made This: The Designer’s Guide to BS

New Edition: Design In Flight Edition. Originally prepared to be offered in a combined subscription + publication. But alas, DiF needed to adapt to some changes and this edition is probably the most up to date to offer. It comes with a cover illustration that previous editions did not. Get your copy from here

 
Fancy Something In Your InBox?
Subscribe to infrequent mailings. Offered to those that won't visit here weekly, and who want to receive an email with six items and usually a treat. We'll never resell or repurpose your address. Promise.