Last week was a whirlwind. I was at the Clarity Conference in SF. I’ve been to this many times and it’s my favorite design event of the year. This is definitive now that the Behance event, 99U is no longer a thing. If you care about design systems, accessibility, or how to scale your digital work–you should check it out. The talks aren’t available yet, but one of them is an article (linked below). I’m looking forward to a regular work week (despite the penalty of extra meetings for being out of the office).
Industrial Design
The Sinewy and Slightly Unsettling Yamaha MOTOROiD 2 Electric Motorcycle
Placed onto a swing arm connected at a pivoting point under the rider’s seat, the setup allows the rear wheel to swivel and lean independently from the front of the bike, giving the bike the ability to find its balance like a living animal
This wind turbine looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before
A startup called Airloom designed a totally new turbine to shrink both the size and cost of wind power
Two Different Design Approaches to Adjustable Wrenches
The Knipex Pliers Wrench and the Wera Joker
Typography
Blaze Type: How to design fonts?
The only guide you need to become a typeface designer
Web Design/UX/UI
Form Field Usability: Avoid Extensive Multicolumn Layouts (16% Make This Form Usability Mistake)
Multicolumn fields are more prone to errors, both from skipping overlooked required fields or spending unnecessary effort on inappropriate ones
Building Design Systems That People Love
What makes you love a product?
Breaking down a design
Yesterday I needed to help a team break down a design to get it ready for development. There are certain patterns that help it go smoothly.
Smashing Conf Design & UX 2023 — my sketchnotes & key takeaways
Smashing Magazine’s brand new conference on design & UX
Architecture
Vo Trong Nghia Architects wraps own office in urban fruit and vegetables farm
The core of the office building is constructed using an exposed concrete frame, while the planters themselves are supported by a shelving-like external structure of thin steel, allowing them to be flexibly rearranged as plants grow or swapped out entirely
Animation
Miyazaki’s next Ghibli movie is already making me cry
And I don’t even know the plot
Go behind the scenes of Fleet Foxes’ new stop-motion video, which tells the tale of an injured hawk trying to return home
“What I’m really drawn to about stop-motion is the tactileness of it. It really does feel like magic,” says animator Eileen Kohlhepp
Random
Where does the checkerboard transparency grid come from?
Solar cells, photoshop and cuttlefish