Two months from now the International Olympic Committee will announce the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The four finalists – Chicago, Madrid, Rio, and Tokyo – have submitted their logo designs as visual representations of their candidacies.
If you were to choose the host city solely based on its logo design, who would you pick?
Visit idsgn for more details on each logo.
My vote is on Rio – how about you?
When I first debuted my site redesign, J asked, “Why do you have a pink Decepticon symbol in your header?”
“What are you talking about? That’s a book.”
Pause. “Ohh…yeah. I see it now.”
Do you think my icon looks like a Decepticon symbol?
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Gizmodo just featured an image from the upcoming book The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide To The World’s Most Consequential Trivia.
As a lover of design, data collection, charts, and graphs, data visualization is right up my alley. I was delighted to discover that there exists a corresponding blog called Information Is Beautiful.
Unfortunately, the blog is still fairly new and so only houses 13 posts – not nearly enough to quench this geek’s unsatisable thirst for knowledge. However, I have no doubt that the blog will blow up very soon…how can it not?
Here are my two favorite images from Information Is Beautiful:
Movie Monster Comparison Chart:
Visual Miscellaneum the book will be released October 27th. You can be sure to find it on my coffee table this fall.
Want more? Follow Info=Beautiful on Twitter!
I don’t know how they do it, but Squarespace never ceases to amaze me when it comes to SEO.
Before switching over in September ’08, I hosted my blog on WordPress which seemed to be the de facto standard for serious bloggers. After befriending some internet marketers, I read up on numerous articles, blogs, and e-books on how to best optimize my blog for search engines – essentially, how to “trick” Google into placing my posts at the top of targeted search queries.
I re-worded my titles and posts. I tried my best to utilize meta tags and keywords to my best advantage. I installed numerous SEO plugins.
It wasn’t all for naught. I saw some improvement in traffic; I’ll grant you that.
However, just a short while after switching to Squarespace, my traffic improved drastically…and kept growing. I must acredit some of this growth to Facebook, Twitter, and internet friends (thanks for the link love!). However, I couldn’t ignore the fact that the largest percentage of my traffic increase stemmed from search engine queries.
Just yesterday, I wrote a post about the possiblity of a The Office Monopoly game. Today, less than 24 hours after writing the post, my little blog comes up as the third hit on Google when you search “the office monopoly” – out of 3,270,000 hits.
(click to enlarge)
Here’s another example from a post I wrote last year, titled Top Ten Pantone® Inspired Products. When you search for “pantone products,” this page comes up as the fourth hit on Google:
(click to enlarge)
Now, with the massive weight that the Pantone name has on the world of designers, I can’t help but feel a bit giddy about this. 
I know that the first rule of thumb when it comes to SEO is to write good content. And perhaps the quality of my content has improved since I made the switch. However, looking at the timing of my traffic records, I cannot help but credit at least some of my search engine rankings to the clean XHTML that is generated by Squarespace.
For more on Squarespace and SEO, read:
What are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services?
Are spiders ignoring my site because of < insert mythical SEO practice >?
have been hearing bad things about squarespace and SEO work!
Kudos to Squarespace on all your hard work!
I know I should wear an apron when cooking, but I don’t.
(An apron would prevent the numerous greasy stains on my clothes. It would’ve also averted that nasty burn I got on my boob from a glob of jumping oil. Why was I cooking naked? Don’t ask.)
However, this Measurement Conversion Apron is cute AND functional – especially for American r-tards like me who are mathematically challenged and uninformed in the ways of the metric system.
Via Lifehacker.
I can’t remember the last time I sent a postcard but these Telegram Postcards from Girl Of All Work would surely give me an excuse to start again!
Actually, they’re so pretty that I may just tack them to a bulletin board to admire. Or perhaps I’ll gift them to a friend who will send me one as a thank-you?
$6.75 for a pack of 4. Via Better Living Through Design.
About a year ago, the creators of Family Guy announced that a follow-up to the knee-slappingly funny spoof of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Blue Harvest, was in the works.
If you are a Star Wars or Family Guy fan who hasn’t watched
“Blue Harvest,” shame on you. Go pick up a copy now.
And at Comic-Con last week the cast, creator, and writers of Family Guy shed some more light on what will be a spoof of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: Something, Something, Something Dark Side.
Although the hour-long special was originally set to air as the finale to Season 7, it has been pushed back to Christmas 2009. The director of Blue Harvest, Dominic Polcino, has been tapped to direct the sequel and fan-favorite James Woods will also make a cameo.
If Something is nearly as good as the first spoof, we will not be disappointed. And, as a large majority of Star Wars fans cite Empire Strikes Back as their favorite of the six films, we definitely have something to look forward to this holiday season.
(And just FYI, my favorite Star Wars movie is Return of the Jedi. I like to be different from the crowd. 
)
Via The Official Star Wars Blog.
OfficeTally, a blog about NBC’s The Office (one of my favorite shows ever) just posted this image, accompanied only with the words “But what are they for? Clues coming soon…”
Ack! I’ve already written about my love for boardgames and Monopoly. Parker Brothers, please tell me that you’re publishing a The Office edition of Monopoly!
Dear Michael Lau,
I love your work. Seriously, I do. As one of the world’s most popular premium toy figure designers, your work commands respect and recognition. And I am happy to oblige.
But why must you price your figures so damn high?
The Godfather marionette, $175 at Vinyl Pulse
$175 may not be too much money for some, but it is to an unemployed marketer/designer/web developer living in one of the most expensive areas in the U.S.
Me. Want.
Waa.
I like books, gadgets, spicy food, and art. I dislike shopping, hot weather, and the laws of entropy. Although I am a self-proclaimed computer nerd, I still have a love for handbags and makeup... and I am always teetering on high heels. To learn more about me, visit the "About" page.
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