10 Things that Make me Happy

As many of you are aware, the Doctor is always happy. If you want to always be happy, here's what I prescribe:

1. Cartoons
They're colourful, imaginative, emotive, distinct and wide ranging. Basically, better than real life.

2. Food
We have built an entire culture around food, which is weird cause people look stupid when they eat. If we're willing to look like idiots in front of other people it MUST be big. So eat good food often.

3. Video Games
Video games are the ultimate medium, a fully engaging enviroment controlled by the viewer. Video games are the future, no question.

4. Chemicals
Yay yay yay, shut up. I'm not saying its good, so calm down, I'm just saying its fun and relaxing.

5. Music
Playing or listening, few things are emotionally connected as music.

6. Sleep
There is nothing more refreshing, and satisfying than a good nights rest on a comfy bed.

7. Breaking Stuff
The best way to learn about something is to screw it up it, then try to fix it. And I love learning about stuff, which brings us to the next point

8. Learning about Stuff
Every time I learn something new I become slightly more useful, more preparred.

9. Arguing
Some people throw hands, I throw words. An argument is the pureist form of logic. Two competing ideals clashing on nothing but the merit of their philosophies. Now THATS a fight

10. Mindset
What makes me happy? My mindset. I understand that the only real purpose in life is to derive as much joy as I can from it. Once you accept this, it easier to say to yourself "Don't worry, be happy".

A List of What I've Learned

Thumbnails always make everything better

Illustrator the artist in the family, In Design is the accountant ... Photoshop is the retarded cousin

Bad people do good work, Good people do bad work

There's no such thing as perfect design

I don't know dick-all ... except that I don't know dick-all

Authority figures are just as flawed as me

The earth is well rounded, it's pretty much the only thing

More of a Greeny Black

I'd like to share with you one of the single best ad campaigns in history. Not a Macintosh, Guinness, the beer company. Guinness made St. Patricks Day their ad campaign.

Serious man, silly hat. Guinness has literally monopolized Guinness. Bars of all varieties ship in kegs of Guinness just for the occassion. "Green Beer" means Guinness. Many campaigns have followed, they failed, but the original is still alive. People still demand Guinness on that drinkinest of days. And who can forget the Guinness book of World Records? When Guinness gets it right, they hit house-hold name status, like Kleenex or Q-Tips.

Max is the Rabbit

Every designer should at some point read Sam and Max: Surfin' the Highway by Steve Purcell. Many of you may remember the cartoon show, and some of you may remember the cult Lucas Arts adventure game Sam and Max Hit the Road. Well, this is where it all started. Surfin' is the entire collected comic works, all hand painted by Steve Purcell. The comics are bright, vibrant, carefully weighted and laid out with interesting elements, cartoonish exaggeration, and smack fulla style. Here Are Some Samples.

Steve Purcell is a classically trained illustrator and painter. His works, while light hearted and cartoony, are masterpieces of colour and design. I urge anyone with a passion for cartoons to buy this book.

Now here's a little something from my personal collection

i

The biggest contribution from Macintosh to the design world is simplicity. When those colourful iMacs started tumbling about the screen, a new design movement was born. Nay, a new design rebellion. Tick tock tick tock...

BOOM!

But enough of that. Simplicity, minimalism, ease of use, human interface. Mac gave us a future glossed over with white plastic. The interesting bit is that white plastic is not hip, new evolutions must transpire. Wait and see what comes next.

Blogging with the Devil

The Fender Stratocaster. In my opinion the quintessential guitar. Much like my post on the Charger, this piece appeals to me because it clearly defines a thing. All the intent and potential, the very idea of "Electric Guitar" is summed up in these curvaceous lines.

Form follows function, and Fender follows the rules. The upper arm of the body holds the strap bolt further forward, while still allowing easy access to higher notes. This steadies the guitar better. The cutaway body, a slant cut in where the forearm rests, makes it easy to steady your arm against the body for more precise pick work. The arch in the bottom makes the Stratocaster easy to balance on your leg. Look at the space around where the neck reaches the body. Can't you just see a hand wrapped around there, mashing some insane licks?!

Relax in the Sity

up of slices that extends along several poles to fill the area its in. It features organic curves and lines that make a variety of different seats in the one chair, from a chair, to a fainting couch.

I love open ended design like this. The modular nature, and accommodating design are cool, but the fact that its not predefined is what I really love. Its a series of curves, you decide how and where you're going to sit.

And get this, it's called the Sitscape

Design is so much fun

Foot Ball or Füt Bål?

Question. What's the one thing that costs more than US military spending? Advertising on the Super Bowl. And this year's harvest was a tasty one. So just what are the Super Ads trying to tell us?

Most of the ads feature a protagonist being helped by another figure. Many of the ads show this other figure succeed, many show them fail. In several of the ads the helping figure, the master, is the product being advertised. This shows an awareness in the US of the faltering economy, the failing government, and the falling country. Now they're reaching out for help, or more over waiting for it to arrive and solve their problems. The failing masters show a certain level of pessimism.

For example, the Budweiser Ad features a horse being helped by a dog. Cars.com has a man being helped by a witchdoctor, with unexpected results. Career Builder has a series of ads with people unwilling to leave their undesirable position till a helping figure pushes them in the right direction. Whoa, that last one was really telling!

Really more of a Death Krinkle

Paper is dead, it just hasn't accepted that yet. Print in general has dug its inky claws in a bit deeper, but must accept eventuality as well. Many people will argue that the hardcopy will be around forever because it only takes one power-failure to lose everything. To this I say, guess what the "hard" part of "hard drive" means, it's really rather similar to the "hard" part of "hardcopy". It only takes one fire, just as likely as a power outage, to lose all your hard copies. People believe a hardcopy is more reliable that a digital copy because computers are still new and mysterious. Just because you can't recover it doesn't mean it can't be recovered. For quite some time now they've had a machine that can take the plates directly from a hard drive and recover the data, you don't even need the hard drive!

As for print, we've seen it begin to fall. The rising popularity of Digital Picture Frames, big screen Billboards and electronic magazines shows people are already embracing a paper less society, meaning it's only a matter of time till we get a paper-less society.

Divining the Watcha-ma-jigger Box

As an avid video game player (One of the reasons I prefer PCs) I feel it is my duty to justify video games. So, I have made it my quest to find ...

Sexiest Console Design

Sexiest Console Design again, because I didn't want to muck up my pretty title with hyper-links. So without further ado, though I assure you tireless research went into this decision, The WonderSwan Color!

What?! I hear you cry. Bet you didn't see THAT one coming. The WonderSwan (all one word) Color is a tidy little hand held released in Japan in 2000 to compete with the Gameboy, if anyone's heard of that obscure toy. Now lets run down the list. Sleek, minimalist design, years ahead of its time, unique line work unlike anything to date, balanced asymmetrical elements, and to top it all off, an innovative design element:


It can be used sideways. And, might I add, looks just as sleek and unique while doing it. It can be argued that there are better designed consoles, or that this is a handheld, not a console. However the WonderSwan gets extra points for innovation. It was the first to really innovate the control scheme. And is the only console to date to use original design elements with its curvy lines, layered shapes, and heavy asymmetry.

All this makes the WonderSwan Color Sexiest Console in Design

It's all about Time

So, I know your sitting there, thinking "What does the Spin Doctor do when he's not BLOWING MY MIND?!" and I hear these thoughts. So, in my magnanimity, I've decided to grace you with that information. So here is The Spin Doctors Week-O-Graph!Damn, thats kinda sad.

It's like a big Mini

I don't like cars, don't know anything about motors beyond "Gas is flammable". But there is one car I love, the 1969 Dodge Charger RT

The Dodge Charger is a hot rod. Hot rods don't take corners, they don't stick to the road. They're not comfortable, efficient, or well made. They are big, loud, and fast. And no car conveys that image more than the 1969 Dodge Charger. King of the Quarter Mile, hell on wheels, when I rev the engine it should sound like the World is coming to an end.

The Charger, a hatchback style 2-door 4-seater, is 2 tonnes (the Canadian kind) of square steel, and it doesn't hide the fact that it is. Many hot rods act like sports cars, with curvy lines and engines that purr. Not the Charger, it is whole and unabashed about its purpose (wasting gas) and for this fact is my favourite car. No other vehicle so completely embraces its purpose in its design.

Design means Never Having to say Sorry

For me, and isn't that what really matters, design means finding a way to change someone's mind. You don't need to convince a customer to buy something they really want. Design is all about the psychology of changing peoples minds.

This has lots of fun factors, though. For example, if someone thinks you're trying to change their mind, they'll instinctively resist. Some people will interpret your message completely wrong. An ugly design, that people don't like, may be the most effective design. For this reason, design has nothing to do with making things look good. Like the jingle you hate but can't forget.

Remember, the greatest beauty is always a lie