Zeitgeister

Chinese New Year

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:16:39 +0000

Chinatown in Yokohama

Photo

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:11:00 +0000

Tokyo (5)

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 05:31:00 +0000

Yasukuni Shrine, Chiyoda

Tokyo (4)

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:11:00 +0000

Yoyogi Park, Meiji Shrine & Tokyo Olympics Gymnasium (Kenzo Tange)

Undulations (2)

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:16:00 +0000

Ichigaya, Tokyo

Tokyo (3)

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:01:00 +0000

A day in the city.

Origami from Lucerne

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:28:00 +0000

Copy that!

Sipho Mabona from Mobona Origami

The week in media

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:33:41 +0100

Week 40

Articles
Magazines begin to sell the fashion they review — Eric Wilson
The power of many — The Economist
Putting brand at the center of customer experience — Kevin Perlmutter

Music
Løb stop stå — Boom Clap Bachelors
A Long Time — Mayer Hawthorne
Movin’ — Quiet Nights Orchestra

Books
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Very intimate, over-sexualised and depressing. In a good way. Recommended.

Tokyo (2)

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:32:00 +0100

The week in media

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 13:24:00 +0100

Week 39 — 26. Sept 2011

Articles
Rettet den Zufall! — Miriam Meckel
Chàvez, the tweeting president — Virginia Lopez
You Love Your iPhone. Literally. — Martin Lindstrom

Music
Caught a Long Wind — Feist
Love and Feeling — Chet Faker
Faded High — Gayngs

Books
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Absorbing read that is fast paced, multifaceted and follows a great concept. And it is astonishingly deep at the same time. Loved.

Ponder of the week: Newspaper design

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:32:00 +0100

While reading the German weekly newspaper «Die Zeit», I suddenly realized anew its outstanding design. The layout of a newspaper has to fulfill many practical requirements like allowing for a flexible use of space, indicating hierarchies of articles and guiding the reader through the sections and pages. But then, the design of a newspaper is to a big extent as well an aesthetic question.

The three newspapers I regularly read (and hold dearest) seem to share a certain design aesthetic. They don’t sport the colorful bars and boxes that seem so popular in contemporary newspaper design. Rather, they consist of clear grids, classic fonts and fewer but strong and well placed images. «Die Zeit» is a little more unconventional in how they play with text and picture to translate the content of the article into the design, but the layout still appears elegant and understated.

Spreads from the «Neue Zürcher Zeitung», «Die Zeit» and the «Financial Times Weekend»

In my opinion, the three examples above stand for an outstanding and intellectual reading pleasure. How much do their looks account for that verdict? How come that the newspapers I enjoy reading most, are as well the ones whose designs I like best? Do the best newspapers as well care more about how they appear or is my judgement of content blurred by superficialities?

It’s probably a bit of both. Some people might be more susceptible to good design than others. But we all know that in many cases the packaging is half the rent.

Then again, the design of newspapers can be a statement about its brand positioning. This is very obvious when you go from boulevard print products to the more intellectual papers, but already less so when you look at political positionings or special competencies.

So what should be the decisive influence on how a newspaper looks like? It’s content? It’s design history? It’s target audience? And are publishing houses aware of what message they are sending?

Tokyo (1)

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:56:00 +0100

Sunday

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:08:00 +0100

Undulations

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:55:00 +0100

Marylebone, London

Inspections of my current life

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:07:00 +0100

Gladly, in only a week’s time it will be all…

Video

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:26:00 +0100

Video

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 08:04:15 +0100

Legend of a Suicide

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:05:00 +0100

By far the strongest book I have read for quite some time.

David Vann’s semi-autobiographical stories all circle around the same event, the suicide of the main character’s father. They don’t offer one single story but rather several takes on processing the events, not caring too much about being coherent.

The middle piece, “Sukkwan Island” part one and two, masterfully builds up tension that peaks in an unexpected twist. It’s impossible to escape the net of uneasiness that Vann spins around the reader and of which he will not easily be able to escape even after reading the book. Moving.

The iFactor

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 07:48:00 +0100

It seems pretty ironic that a phone, which is originally built in China, is then sold in the USA and reimported to where it came from to be sold on the black market for a multiple of the production cost.

A fascinating peek on globalization and the changing of our society.

http://www.nytimes.com/

Khoi Vinh, former design director of nytimes.com, talks about...

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:04:00 +0100

Khoi Vinh, former design director of nytimes.com, talks about being “a designer of the news experience” at the first of three “Freitag am Donnerstag” talks.
Freitag does a good PR job, the talks and the news project are well aligned with its target group. And the bags really do look good.