I had no idea that there were so many modifications to the Batman logo over time. I particularly like the time-based morph approach shown in this video. It lends some interesting movement and changes to the distinctive silhouette and gives a sense of just how spooky it would be to run into a pissed off Batman dropping from the sky down a dark alley. Mommy!

P.S. I am reminded that I’d really like to check out
Superman/Batman Vs. Aliens & Predator (Superman (Graphic Novels))
It might be silly but I gots to know what happens!

A new design documentary from Gary Hustwit is coming to SxSW this year in March. Hustwit also directed the acclaimed “Helvetica,” which recently made its way to NBC and seems to reside just below my shipping DVDs on Netflix all the time.

This trailer features the dulcet tones of Jony Ive (amongst others) to start off. Now how’s that for design?

• Literature: The image of Franz Kafka as a saint and a recluse is turning out not to be true. A new book explores Kafka’s porn collection and how it may change academic readings.
  

  Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life

• Architecture: I absolutely love the way that light and color interplay on the Planar House by Steven Holl Architects.
• Architecture: The plans for the Kilden Performing Arts Center in Kristiansand, Norway make it appear as if the building is a force of nature, rather than a man-made building. Striking work from ALA Architects.
• Art, Design, and Architecture: You’ve just gotta love a Big Bowl O Fire!
• Art: The work of Greg Gossel is explosive, poppy and just plain fun to look at.
• Architecture: Funny, broken Engrish but if you want to see something hilarious, watch the intro videos for the dome house. A woman dressed in Japanese school-girl style will walk you through it. You should definitely buy one if you live on Tattooine or if you have a Japanes schoolgirl fetish, which I’m guessing, is the same audience. Those sand storms can be awfully dangerous.

I really love the idea behind this book, surfaced on design sponge, and can hardly believe that it’s over 100 years old. The concept goes something like this:

• get your friends to sign their name on a page of the book with a thick, inky pen
• fold the paper down the middle of the signature
• admire the symmetrical artistry of a smooshed name

[from design sponge]

Changing your assumptions about what a car should be. The BMW GINA (Geometry and function In “N” Adaptations) is not only beautiful, it’s more functional – lighter, less energy required in the manufature of materials, etc.

I think it would be pretty cool to own multiple skins for your car and swap them out when you tire of one. Oh wait, now we’re getting back into wasteful aren’t we?

This one just focuses on design questions.

John Gall is the vice-president and art director for Vintage and Anchor Books. He’s the designer of “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” a personal favorite of mine. While the video’s a touch light on substance, you do get to see a bunch of nifty covers while learning the 5 rules , which are:

1. read the book
2. inspiration is everywhere
3. be thrifty with fonts
4. practice sound time management
5. rules are meant to be broken

This morning, it appears that Google has decided to honor the invention of the laser with another one of their nifty logo tributes.

On May 16th, 1960, Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first laser. At the time, he was quoted as saying, “A laser is a solution seeking a problem.” He had no idea that it would eventually be used for brain imaging, measurement, burning, etc.

Are they at least ill-tempered sea bass?

P.S. I always love these Google tributes. Last year I wrote a post one the Valentines Day logo that looked like it said “Googe”. That post melted down my server until I installed caching. I guess everyone else likes these things too.

Resources:

• Maiman’ s obituary article in the International Herald Tribune is the source of some of the info in this post. It’s worth a read.

Thank you to the folks who provided feedback regarding what you wanted to see in the site redesign. I dove in really thinking that I wanted to get back to the simple look of a two-column layout but ended up settling on the Thesis Theme from Pearsonified. I think that it gives the initial simple appearance i was going for while also providing some flexibility to layout widgets in two columns. Based on feedback, I also wanted to get away from the black background and use highly readable fonts. I think that the theme gives a great starting point on that front.

Please give the new comments fields a workout and let me know any feedback or suggestions that you might have. I’d love to hear it!

I removed a bunch of crufty content and uploaded some starter images for the blog. The images are bit “wintery” but they can be updated fairly simply now that things are up and running. If you have any great photos you think would go well, feel free to send them to me. I’d like to build up a deck of maybe 20 or 30 to cycle through randomly and keep things fresh.

Thanks to Ross for coming over and drinking wine while helping me explore and play with these new templates! Now if we can just figure out how to get the Faves widget to fit in with things and play nice (we spent an hour last night trying to figure out why the “unstyled” widget was overwriting our CSS attributes), we’ll be golden.