christian ross

Ampersand Faux Cufflinks

Once or twice in the last year I’ve gone searching for a pair of cufflinks. Unfortunately, these weren’t carried in any of the stores I ventured into.

At $50, I’m not inclined to order these right now but I am adding them to my when-I-strike-it-rich list. Or to my buying-something-will-cure-what-ails-you list. Either way, they’re making it on a list.

Can be used on regular sleeved shirts as well as French-cuffed. Only problem I see with them is they do have the potential to be too much if they are oversized. Hard to tell from the images.

http://www.veer.com/products/merchdetail.aspx?image=VPR0005442

Font nerds, without cheating, can you name that font?

Looking for a good burger recipe?

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is here to help: http://www.cheeseandburger.com/

Great design. Tasty photography. One of the few places where an all Flash-based site is workable.

The design-client conundrum

Interesting thoughts from Jason Zimdars over at 37 Signals today.

Of course it is totally understandable to take the ideas of those that pay our bills as gospel. But we should also be reminded that those same people hired us for our expertise. If they just wanted someone to follow orders, they’d probably have hired someone else.

Rarely do I take the ideas of clients as gospel. And admittedly, there are times when I should be a little more open to an idea or two from a client if it is decent. But there’s got to be a market position where you are no longer just a pixel-pusher for a client and you become a partner in innovation with them. All too often, clients will choose ego over best practice and I can’t help but wonder how much it ultimately affects their bottom line.

My job is to make you look better. Please let me do my job.

Designing a logo

I don’t hide the fact that Adobe Illustrator and I aren’t necessarily friends. I’ve never been one to have the ability to draw much. And for being a related field, I feel like I should be better at logo design, but it just isn’t my forte.

Which is probably why videos like the following capture my attention so much. It’s 6 minutes long so you might just want to jump through some of it as it goes. It really gets interesting to watch once the logo creation gets started. And jump through to Mattson’s site to see the other renditions and final results.

Digital Clock

If this clock is in production by Christmas, you can add it to my list. Minimal, functional, beautiful.

Battery operated, individual pieces, set time by touching each number and auto-adjustment to light to determine white or black numbers. More design like this, please.

(via swiss-miss)